Mossman Botanic Garden is now a reality. Today, more than 200 people combined to plant over 4000 trees, marking a significant milestone in the transformation of former sugarcane land into a public botanical garden.

The event, hosted by MBG and Wet Tropics Restoration Alliance members Terrain NRM and Rainforest Rescue, is helping to turn designs and blueprints into a recreational, research and training facility, and a gateway to the Daintree rainforest.

Mossman Botanic Garden CEO, Nicky Swan, said she was delighted by the collaborative effort.

“The Mossman Botanic Garden project is a community project, aimed at showcasing the unique biodiversity of the Wet Tropics region and sharing the ecological knowledge of our Traditional Owners,’’ she said.

“This initiative is also about creating green jobs and stimulating the local economy. The community and partner organisations – we’re all in this together to bring a long-held vision to life.”

Stewart Christie, CEO of Terrain NRM, said the tree planting event was a great way to mark the natural resource management organisation’s 20th anniversary.

“For two decades, Terrain NRM has worked with hundreds of partners across the Wet Tropics region and has channelled over $200 million into environmental initiatives to protect and restore the land, waterways, threatened species and the Great Barrier Reef,” he said.

“The next 20 years are going to be very challenging with climate change and biodiversity loss, so we wanted to mark this occasion by contributing to a community project that will leave a legacy.”

Rainforest Rescue is managing the planting and ongoing maintenance, and providing the trees for the new venture from its recently established large-scale native plant nursery in the Daintree. CEO Branden Barber said the Mossman Botanic Garden project was helping to share the message of rainforest conservation and climate action.

“This tree planting event is our largest to date and an opportunity to demonstrate our capacity to support restoration projects at scale within the region. Now there are over 70 species of rainforest plants beginning to form a new rainforest – all collected from our Daintree protected properties and propagated and grown at our Cow Bay Nursery. We’re drawing carbon from the atmosphere and increasing biodiverse habitat. Supporting the new Mossman Botanic Garden and working alongside Terrain NRM to create great conservation outcomes together is inspiring. Plant a rainforest!”