11th Jun 2025

Granite Borders Landcare Committee will hold their Annual General Meeting (AGM) on the 11th of June, 2025, from 5pm.

Please note that our Annual General Meeting is open to all Granite Borders Landcare members.

The evening will include:

5pm | Annual General Meeting

5:30pm | General Meeting

Fire to Flourish Project reviews

1. Tenterfield Naturalists, Tenterfield Park Partnership
2. Tenterfield Community Garden Upgrades
3. Focus on Feathers, Volunteer Community Bushfire Preparedness and Response

New Landcare Group updates and previews

1. Border Landcare Organic Group, BLOG
2. Granite Borders Botanic Garden concept - Muwa Djali Botanic Garden

6pm | Guest Speaker presentation

Dr Andrew Thornhill, Lecture in Plant Systematics, the University of New England.

Andrew will be talking about his involvement in and knowledge of herbaria and botanical gardens, including the role they play in research, education and understanding botanical life. A timely talk given the general interest in a Botanic Garden for the Granite Belt country.

Andrew has worked in various herbaria, including:

• The Australian National Herbarium (CSIRO, Canberra)
• The Australian Tropical Herbarium (James Cook University, Cairns)
• The University and Jepson Herbaria (University of California, Berkeley)
• The State Herbarium of South Australia (Adelaide).

Dr Andrew Thornhill is the lecturer in Plant Systematics at UNE, with interests in Native Australian plants, spatial phylogenetics (the study of evolutionary history and relationships between organisms across areas of diversity and endemism), palynology (spores and pollen), paleobotany (fossils) and bryology (mosses, liverworts and hornworts).

Andrew is the director of UNE’s N.C.W. Beadle Herbarium, a research, teaching and service facility housing a collection of preserved plant specimens from the New England and other regions. Andrew was first attracted to botany through collecting carnivorous plants which led to a Masters project at Monash University studying pitcher plants. He completed his PhD at the Australian National University working on the plant family Myrtaceae and continued his research through postdoctoral research on plant evolution with an emphasis on Australian plants(eucalypts and Acacia) and large phylogenetic studies across abroad botanical and geographical range.

7pm | Light hot dinner and desert

Spend time catching up with folks familiar and new.

Tea and coffee will be available throughout the evening.