2019 National Tree Day Celebrations

July 28, 2019

National Tree Day by Planet Ark, sponsored by Toyota Australia, is Australia’s largest community tree-planting and nature care event.

National Tree Day is an opportunity to have a positive impact on your local community and its environment, and to reconnect with nature.

This year we were invited back by the Pine Rivers Koala Care Association Inc. to participate in their School’s Tree Day planting activities on the Friday 26th of July in Strathpine. As well as being invited by the Moreton Bay Regional Council to attend their National Tree Day event on Sunday 28th of July in Margate.

The Pine Rivers Koala Care Association Inc. event was held at Rob Akers Reserve on Bells Pocket Rd in Strathpine. We provided over 250 trees that will help provide a natural habitat for koalas that live in the area. We had students from both Pine Rivers High School and Strathpine State School attend to do the planting activities.

We were lucky enough to be visited by a baby koala that the association had in their care at the time. At only 8 months old, he was a big hit with everyone on the day. We were also treated to a special Mum and Bub Koala sighting in the trees right near the planting sight.

The Pine Rivers Koala Care Association does some amazing work at rescuing and reintroducing koalas in the local Pine Rivers area.

On Sunday we headed out to Margate to host a BBQ for all of the volunteers that attended the Moreton Bay Regional Council’s planting event on the corner of Morris and Wattle Rd.

They had around 100 people pre-register for the event but so many more participants showed up on the day. We were there at 8am setting up, and as 9am rolled around we could see the crowd growing larger and larger.

It took about 3 hours to have all of the planting activities completed, with some well-earned food and refreshments provided by our team after everything was completed.

There were local residents, a large contingent of scouts and girl guides, as well as volunteers and supporters from the local community involved.

The event was a huge success, helping plant over 2000 trees in the local parklands.

This year, we also helped out 6 local schools by providing tree, grass and shrub seedlings, gloves, shirts and material.

We supported the following schools:

Good Shepherd Christian School, Albany Creek
Holy Spirit Catholic School, Bray Park
Albany Hills State School, Albany Creek
Humpybong State School, Margate
Narangba Valley State School, Narangba
Genesis Christian College, Lawnton

We would like to thank the Principals, teachers and volunteers at the schools that helped make this day a reality for the kids involved.

We were lucky enough to be invited to join Albany Hills State School at their planting afternoon. They really got behind national tree day, and not only did they plant a great range of native plants – they started a veggie garden on their school grounds. We can’t wait to be welcomed back for a fresh lunch to feast on their produce.

We would like to thank our Torque Toyota volunteers who helped out with this year’s events, Trina, Bernie, Shane and their families.

Thanks to Kumbartcho Nursery that assisted with all of the trees and plants that were provided to our local schools and events.

Thanks to all of the schools, especially the schools that participate year in year out, and help bring the message of environmental engagement to our future generations.

We hope everyone had a fantastic time last week, and look forward to helping everyone out again next year.