We are at that stage of every building project where the outside is nearly finished but the inside still has a fair bit to go. If you have driven by the Australian PlantBank in the last few weeks you will have seen the final shaping of the landscape and around 1700m3 of topsoil delivered. We will commence planting our 25,000 plants in a few days once the irrigation works are complete. Thanks to AM for a couple of the pics!

This week the PlantBank seed bank vault sponsors and the Royal Botanic Garden & Domain Trust ‘s Principal Conservation Partners, HSBC Australia, enjoyed a tour of the facility. We are pleased to report they are impressed!

Our staff go to great lengths to keep you up-to-date with PlantBank and this week we have an aerial view of the construction site! The photograph was captured a few weeks ago as part of a flyover monitoring the removal of our weedy African olive patches.

It’s been a busy month and we are a bit behind keeping you up-to-date with PlantBank’s progress.  As you will see from the photos some areas, like our new shiny laboratories, are almost complete and works on the landscape have recently commenced.

A shiny new addition to PlantBank has recently been unveiled with some of the amazing reflective stainless steel facade now installed.  We hope you like it as much as we do!  The laboratories are well advanced with lab benching recently installed.

The scaffolding has started to come down on the PlantBank facade as the glass starts to be installed. Some recent issues, that are not uncommon on building projects, have slowed progress in key zones. Fortunately these problems are progressively being resolved but it might take a little longer than we hoped to get PlantBank up and running.

PlantBank fundraising success!

Thank you to everyone who supported our PlantBank fundraising campaign. We are delighted to announce that we have reached our target.

An impressive $4.25 million has been raised by the Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust, supported by the efforts of the former Friends of the Botanic Gardens and the Royal Botanic Gardens Foundation (now the newly merged Foundation & Friends of the Botanic Gardens). This $4.25 million will sit alongside the contribution from the NSW Government for this $19.8 million build.

These are exciting times at PlantBank. With the fundraising target reached, we look forward to construction being completed early next year. The installation of the interpretation components will then commence, the landscaping will occur and around 25,000 plants will be planted, all propagated on site. 

In early 2013 the scientists will move into PlantBank and its new seed bank facilities will protect our growing collection, already estimated at 100 million seeds.

Thank you to everyone who supported PlantBank during the fundraising campaign. Together we have made a valuable contribution towards the future of our plant life.

This week we had a special visitor to the PlantBank construction site, Paul Smith, Head of the Seed Conservation Department and Millennium Seed Bank, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (United Kingdom). The Millennium Seed Bank holds a duplicate set of seed from the collections we have made over the last decade.

PlantBank construction rolls on as we pass the 85% mark! Unfortunately the construction process is running slightly behind schedule with practical completion now scheduled for late February.

Our PlantBank vision is almost a reality! Thanks to the generous support of many individuals, our corporate sponsors and foundations we are thrilled to announce we have almost reached our $4.25m fundraising target. These funds, together with the $15.5m provided by the NSW Government will build one of our nation’s most important conservation initiatives. If you would like to help us reach our fundraising goal, please contact our Development Branch on (02) 9231 8050.

A huge thank you to the TransGrid staff and their families at the tree planting day yesterday (14 October 2012) at the Australian Botanic Garden, Mount Annan. TransGrid is a major donor contributing to the construction of PlantBank. If you look beyond the enthusiastic crew planting and watering the trees you’ll see glimpses of PlantBank in the background. PlantBank is now around 80% complete!