Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II might be weathering a personal COVID-19 storm but Australians are being encouraged to take a leaf out of her book and plant trees to commemorate the monarch's record-setting platinum jubilee.
Environment Minister Sussan Ley told Flow listeners on Friday she was eager for Australians to engage with a federal government tree-planting initiative attached to the 70th anniversary of Her Majesty's coronation:
“Planting trees for the jubilee – it provides a hundred thousand dollars of grant funding for each electorate...has, if you like, an allocation of $100,000 to go towards applications that come into them, ranging from $2,500 to $20,000, groups, organisations, schools, land care – all sorts of people who want to take advantage of this.”
“They will be able to plant trees for the jubilee program and trees don’t have to particularly mark the Queen’s 70 years, but they certainly will help our local regions remember the anniversary if they want to.”
“In any case, trees have a long-lasting and important connection with communities, so I think it’s a great program from that perspective too.”
South Australian federal member for Barker Tony Pasin demonstrated on Monday that he had rolled up his sleeves to answer his Liberal colleague's call to arms, issuing this image planting a tree to mark the jubilee:
Mr Pasin said on Monday:
“This program will increase community awareness and celebration of Her Majesty’s jubilee and create a legacy of tree plantings right across our nation for Australians to enjoy and honour her memory.”
“I’m inviting community organisations, schools, and local councils to mark the Jubilee and apply for funding under this new program.”
Grants from 11 March to 2 May will be available here from $2,500 to $20,000 for a broad range of organisations with each federal electorate eligible to receive up to $100,000 for up to 10 projects.
Projects that are suitable must include formal commemorative events in 2022 to mark the Jubilee, plantings of regionally‑appropriate tree species, and installation of commemorative signage or plaques.
Ley spoke about the importance of trees for communities and Her Majesty's personal contribution to arboriculture:
“Her Majesty has planted 1500 trees during her time as Queen and when I heard that number I thought ‘that’s not very many’ and I asked to have it checked, but it’s actually only 1500, so where we’ve got them in Australia – I think there’s probably 15 or 16, they’re pretty special.”
“I think that 70 years on the throne is pretty remarkable.”