Stage 1 of City of Darwin's 4,000 Tree Planting Project started in Anula today with Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis planting the first tree.
The project will see 903 mature trees planted in parks and greenbelts across Anula, Malak and Wulagi, three suburbs particularly hard hit by Cyclone Marcus. This is the first of four stages to the project, which is expected to be completed by the end of the 2019/20.
Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis said "Our focus is on replacing the thousands of trees lost during Cyclone Marcus to create a city that is cool, green and liveable," he said.
"A lot of work has been completed in the city centre and we are now shifting our attention to the suburbs."
"We are committed to achieving a more robust and resilient urban forest across Darwin," he said "and the $5.8M allocated to beautification and tree planting in the 2019/20 budget will see us achieve this," he said.
A significant number of trees have already been planted since January 2019 and by the end of December approximately 8,000 trees will have been planted.
"This is a wonderful achievement by our team," said Lord Mayor Vatskalis "and more importantly a terrific outcome for our community."
Jamie Lewis, Senior Coordinator Parks and Reserves said many lessons had been learnt from Cyclone Marcus. "Thousands of trees were lost during Cyclone Marcus and it is important that we promote diversity," he said.
"We will be planting trees of varying age, characteristics and size, with a mix of Australian and Northern Territory natives and tropical exotic species, to create a robust urban forest."
"A major focus is putting the right tree in the right place with the right soil and the right watering system," Jamie concluded.
This will be the first project for City of Darwin's new Landscaping Team, with a major restructure of the Infrastructure Department in July to meet a $53M commitment to completing major projects in 2019/20. The project will be managed end to end by the new team, including scoping and design, irrigation and planting.
Stage 1 of the 4,000 Trees Planting Project includes 8885m of irrigation and 1806 drip emitters. Stages 2, 3 and 4 commence in January 2020 and will see planting in all Darwin suburbs.
