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Resilient Gardens Series – Part 3: From devastation to opportunity at the Gold Coast Regional Botanic Gardens

Turning a cyclone into a catalyst for innovation and reinvigoration.

Stuart Elder, Supervisor, Gold Coast Regional Botanic Gardens.

On the morning of 6 March 2025, the Gold Coast Regional Botanic Gardens appeared much as it had for more than two decades: calm, green and quietly thriving. The lakes were still, the eucalypts upright and shimmering, and the pathways lined with plants shaped by years of horticultural care. Over the days that followed, tropical cyclone Alfred gradually intensified, bringing one of the most significant environmental challenges in the gardens’ history.

Alfred formed in the Gulf of Carpentaria before tracking erratically down the east coast of Australia. Unlike fast-moving systems, Alfred stalled repeatedly, intensifying as it drew in warm tropical moisture. By the time it reached the Gold Coast, it had unleashed more than 500 mm of rain over four days, followed by a further 140 mm soon after. Floodwaters rose 300–600 mm above boardwalk levels, saturating soils, eroding paths and inundating garden beds. Sustained winds, exceeding 100 km per hour, swept across Lake Rosser, carving a destructive corridor through the Coastal Headland Garden, Banksia Woodland and Gum Tree Corridor. For gardens designed around both display and conservation, the scale of the impact was unprecedented.

Devastation of Gum Tree Corridor, Flowering Gums and Special Forms collections (L), and Eucalyptus rootball (R).

The City of Gold Coast (City) led clean up and recovery efforts to restore its botanic gardens in the months that followed, as the narrative of Alfred shifted. What began as devastation evolved into a story of leadership, learning and innovation. The event prompted the Gold Coast Regional Botanic Gardens to re-examine its resilience, strengthen scientific partnerships and refine its approach to climate-informed landscape design.

Flooding of Sensory Garden

The Gold Coast Regional Botanic Gardens occupies 33 ha, including 10 ha of maintained gardens, 13 ha of water bodies and hard surfaces, and more than 4 km of walking tracks. The living collection contains more than 6,000 recorded plants, representing 51 listed threatened species and 33 species on the City’s priority species list. Rosser House, built in 1923 and now listed on the Gold Coast Local Heritage Register, sits as a historical anchor within the landscape. A small but experienced team of horticultural staff manage the site, supported by the Friends of the Gold Coast Regional Botanic Gardens, who provide essential volunteer support, guided walks, education programs and community nursery operations.

When the cyclone passed, more than 150 mature trees (many exceeding 15 m in height) had been lost. Some held cultural or commemorative significance, while others represented accessioned threatened species. Notable botanical losses were Brisbane Mallee Eucalyptus curtisii, Bancroft’s Gum Eucalyptus bancroftii and Narrow-leaved Scribbly Gum Eucalyptus racemosa, species planted more than two decades ago and valued for both conservation and interpretation. The Casuarina Grove suffered extensive structural damage; its snapped branches illustrating the intensity of wind pressure. Understorey plantings in several precincts were crushed beneath fallen timber, while prolonged inundation drowned species not adapted to such sustained saturation.

Wind direction in blue and plotted lost living collections in red.

Curator Paul Cockbain surveying damage of Gum Tree Corridor and adjacent flooding from an overflowing Nerang River

The cultural and community losses were equally poignant. The Benowa Tree (Pink Bloodwood Corymbia intermedia), planted by the late Gene Rosser, a pioneer of the gardens’ history and a major donor, was destroyed. Trees were also lost from the Defence Force Grove, planted to honour Australian service personnel. In Friendship Force Avenue, trees planted with international visitors and former mayors were uprooted. Commemorative trees, planted with Turkish artists to commemorate 110 years since the landing of Gallipoli in the Callitris Grove, suffered severe damage. Each loss represented an important part of the gardens’ shared story.

Wildlife was also significantly affected. Decades-old hollows collapsed with the trees that held them, displacing birds, mammals and reptiles. Yet, with the gardens closed to visitors, wildlife began expanding into new areas. Waterfowl moved into previously busy spaces, and small mammals appeared in places where they had been rarely observed. This period of natural redistribution provided valuable insight into habitat connectivity. In response, new artificial hollows were installed to encourage recolonisation and improve long-term habitat diversity.

The clean-up effort was immense. Over 1,000 labour hours were required from staff, arborists, contractors and Disaster Relief Australia volunteers. More than 500 m³ of fallen timber and debris were processed into mulch and reused throughout the gardens. City teams restored damaged drainage networks, repaired pump systems, tested electrical infrastructure and assessed road and path stability. Arborist inspections were conducted in two phases: an initial safety sweep followed by detailed visual assessments of each tree. This careful approach ensured that the gardens could safely reopen to visitors on 16 April 2025, just before the Easter long weekend.

Left: Clean-up, repair and drainage works post-TC Alfred. Right: Professional arborists and heavy equipment were required to remove two tall Eucalyptus trees that had blocked the ring road opposite the sensory garden.

Recovery costs exceeded $550,000, including operational clean-up, tree removal, chipping, stump grinding and arboricultural assessments. Yet the ecological and cultural cost, measured in lost canopy, lost habitat and lost stories, cannot be captured in monetary terms.

One of the most valuable opportunities emerged through science. Griffith University researchers approached the gardens to conduct a fallen-tree and root-zone study, analysing soil profiles, historic fill layers and structural failure patterns. The findings will help guide future species selection, planting placement and soil remediation strategies. Internally, herbarium volunteers undertook the painstaking task of verifying every accession within the gardens’ database, ensuring an accurate record of the living collection’s post-cyclone composition.

Several major strategic projects are now being scoped to support long-term resilience. A proposed Biodiversity Centre would provide a hub for conservation science, interpretation and education. Future lake and lagoon rehabilitation works aim to stabilise banks, enhance flows and restore aquatic habitat, helping to improve the management of water quality. Heritage assessments of Rosser House will guide future conservation and restoration where required, while proposed visitor entrance upgrades will enhance accessibility and presentation. A planned recycled water pipeline upgrade will provide long-term irrigation security.

Emergency assistance from Disaster Relief Australia volunteers who provided initial assistance clearing blocked roads for access. All images credit Stuart Elder.

A new disaster operational plan has been formalised. The plan outlines clear communication pathways with the City’s Disaster and Emergency Management Unit, establishes rapid assessment procedures and strengthens cross-departmental coordination. It also embeds long-term ecological monitoring, acknowledging that trees often show delayed symptoms of stress, sometimes seven to 10 years after a major weather event.

Design work is now focused on resilient landscapes. The Wallum Garden and tree planting plans are being revised to prioritise species capable of withstanding wind exposure, episodic flooding and altered hydrology. The corridor most affected by Alfred will be redesigned with climate-adapted species, improved soil profiles and structural planting aimed at reducing future vulnerability.

My previous experience as curator of Rockhampton Botanic Gardens reinforced the importance of long-term vigilance. A major branch failure in 2023, traced back to canopy damage from cyclone Marcia eight years earlier, demonstrated the hidden risks that can persist long after a storm has passed. This knowledge shapes our approach: regular assessments, aerial inspections where needed and clear recognition that recovery is not a single event but an ongoing commitment.

Alfred reshaped the Gold Coast Regional Botanic Gardens, but it also catalysed new leadership. It strengthened partnerships with universities, deepened community engagement, sharpened organisational preparedness and expanded our understanding of resilient plant design. The event reminded us that gardens are dynamic systems, living and adaptive, shaped by both care and disturbance.

As volunteer and Friends of the Gardens founding member, Kate Heffernan, expressed, ‘the Gold Coast Regional Botanic Gardens is a lifelong journey. They are a place to learn the mysteries of nature, sometimes a place to acknowledge the past, and always a place to forge the future.’ In the aftermath of Alfred, that future is already taking root.

Image credits: Stuart Elder, Gold Coast Regional Botanic Gardens.

Read more about Resilient Gardens in our BOTANIC GARDENer magazine, issue 66 here: https://www.bganz.org.au/issue-66-of-the-botanic-gardener-magazine/

Julia Watson

October 5, 2026

BGANZ, News

Featured, News
Resilient Gardens Series – Part 2: Weathering Southland’s Big Storm in Queens Park, Invercargill

Chris McAulay, Manager – Parks Operations, Invercargill City Council, New Zealand

Walking down tree-lined Coronation Avenue in Queens Park’s today, you’d be forgiven for forgetting the sheer scale of devastation suffered by the park only not that long ago. Invercargill’s award-winning public gardens felt the full force of Southland’s big storm on 23 October 2025, with wind gusts exceeding 130 km/h batter the city in a dramatic reversal of the calm spring conditions earlier that day.

A large Pinus radiata snapped like a matchstick in the October wind event.

Although the most extreme winds lasted less than an hour, damage across the city was widespread. Thousands of people were left without access to critical infrastructure, including electricity and telecommunications, and a state of emergency was declared throughout Southland.

Queens Park, containing some of Invercargill’s oldest and largest public trees, was hit particularly hard when the winds barrelled in. Many trees were uprooted, and then toppled, throughout the 81-hectare park, while many of those left standing suffered significant structural damage.

By the time the state of emergency was lifted on 7 November, more than two weeks after the storm, hundreds of trees had fallen and green spaces across Invercargill remained off limits to the public due to the risk of falling trees, branches and debris.

For possibly the first time in its 170-year history, Queens Park was closed.

Our response

The initial response to the storm focused on damage to essential infrastructure and immediate public safety risks, such as broken traffic lights, dangerous structures and trees blocking roads. While this immediate response was relatively swift, early assessments of parks and reserves suggested it would take at least five or six months to repair damage to the tree canopy and make these public spaces safe again.

It was clear from the scale of the damage that a significant portion of the remedial work would exceed our in-house capability. Trees needed to be checked for broken and damaged limbs, typically by climbing and inspecting each individual tree. This required specialist arboricultural skills and equipment.

In Queens Park, we focused on retaining heritage canopy cover and saving trees wherever possible. In particular, retention of the century-old English beech trees lining Coronation Avenue, with their obvious community and amenity value, was seen as essential to preserving the character of the park. Some of these trees were pollarded and others had metal braces installed to ensure their continued structural integrity. Although these measures have a significant visual impact in the short term, they have allowed the trees to be retained, giving them a chance to regenerate, and maintaining key canopy cover in the park.

Queens Park remained closed for approximately a month following the storm, with a staged reopening from mid-November, balancing public safety with the sheer volume of work required. Much of the space opened at the beginning of 2026, with only isolated sections of trees needing remediation remaining.

The total cost of cleaning up fallen trees and other damage across Council’s 150-odd parks and reserves – including Queens Park – exceeded NZD900,000. More than 630 trees were climbed and pruned by arborists and nearly 800 trees were removed across the city, creating approximately 1,200 tonnes of excess wood and saleable logs, and mountains of mulched woodchips.

A staff member stands beside the root ball of a Pinus radiata that succumbed to the wind event. This was a common sight throughout Queens Park.

Lessons learned

The importance of maintaining a healthy tree network across our city was brought sharply into focus following the storm.

We already knew that stable and well-established trees could suffer damage during extreme weather. However, the scale of damage caused by the high winds experienced in October’s storm was a particularly harsh reminder of what nature could do to our public spaces and the risk this damage could pose to the community. It was not the only setback weathered by Queens Park that year. Strong winds earlier in June saw a mature pine tree fall, while seven trees toppled in adverse weather in September, including a large oak believed to be about 80 years old.

Saturated ground due to heavy rainfall may have contributed to the number of trees falling. There was some speculation in the community that trees in Queens Park were problematically shallow-rooted due to historic planting methods, namely using biscuit tins to raise saplings.

Invercargill’s soils are categorised primarily as peat and waterlogged gley soil,¹ which naturally limits potential root depth. We did not find any evidence, however, that shallow rooting caused trees to fall, including trees planted many decades ago. Regardless, the storm events were a clear example of what could occur as a changing climate drives increasingly unpredictable weather patterns in our region. It is clear that the damaged and fallen trees, assessed as safe under normal conditions, were not as resilient as they could have been in such extreme weather.

More storms and summer droughts will only add to the pressures on our tree network, which could lead to greater losses and greater danger to the public in the future.

Many trees toppled in October 2025 in Queens Park, which contains some of Invercargill’s oldest and largest trees.

Looking forward with a plan

Having a good understanding of the existing tree network is a key part of ensuring that trees in our public spaces remain safe and maintenance is prioritised where it is needed.

Trees clearly provide a range of benefits, such as shade and aesthetic value, but the damage sustained last year showed some of the real hazards that they can present when put under extreme stress. By managing the urban forest appropriately, we can build resilience in our canopy and ensure we have the right tree in the right place for the right purpose.

Arial view pre-storm, 8 April 2023. Image credit 2023 Airbus, Google Earth

Arial view post-storm, 27 November 2025. Image credit 2025 Airbus, Google Earth

Since 2020, following the development of our first tree plan, we have captured data on approximately 15,000 high-risk trees across the city, using human-based methods to capture basic information.

Over the past couple of years, we have improved data collection in specific parks, including Queens Park, using a specialised technology platform, greehill, in partnership with Treetech. The greehill platform captures highly accurate 3D data of tree structure and canopy using Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), and AI processes this data to automatically identify, measure and assess trees. This technology enables efficient, large-scale tree management and monitoring and will give us a better understanding of the heights, ages and species of trees in the urban forest network, as well as their carbon sequestration capabilities. These data are invaluable for the safety of the public and to protect and nurture the living assets in our parks.

We are currently in the process of refreshing our tree plan, which will help further guide our approach to managing trees in Queens Park and the city. One of the goals in the new plan is a preference for at least 30% native species when planting on reserve land.

As large, fast-growing trees, most of the city’s shelter plantings are made up of exotic eucalyptus, Monterey Cypress Hesperocyparis macrocarpa and pine species. In October’s storm, and the weather events earlier in 2025, these three tree types were the most affected, with only a small number of New Zealand natives impacted.

Although natives have not been used as widely as specimen trees or shelter in our parks historically, and there are fewer mature native trees that could be damaged, it is clear that they perform better in our environment in some situations and can potentially have a longer life in the right location.

Having a clear tree plan, which incorporates a native species goal, ensures that we consider the best trees for a given area, even if they are not the exotic species traditionally used in our urban parks. As we expand the data we have on our trees, we can increasingly use a robust evidence-based approach to determine what species we plant where.

October’s storm showed us how vulnerable our city can be to extreme weather and how important it is to plan for uncertainty in the future. While trees can present risks during severe weather events, their benefits far outweigh those challenges when they are well-planned and managed.

We don’t know what the future will bring, or what storms Queens Park will have to weather in a changing climate. Learning from how our trees respond in an event like Southland’s big storm is the first step towards a diverse and resilient tree network that enhances our urban environment and can be a legacy for the future.

(1. See https://soils.landcareresearch.co.nz/topics/soil-classification/nzsc/soil-orders/gley-soils for more information on this type of soil.)

Read Part 1 of our Resilient Gardens Series here: Resilient Gardens – A Conversation with Sue McDougall.

Read more about Resilient Gardens in Issue 66 of the BOTANIC GARDENer Magazine.

Julia Watson

September 29, 2026

News

Featured, News
Grow Well Together: Benefits of Volunteering

As part of Botanic Gardens Week 2026 and the “Grow Well” Series, in Episode 2 BGANZ brought together an inspiring panel of speakers to explore the powerful connection between volunteering, nature and wellbeing.

From reducing loneliness and stress to strengthening social connection and purpose, volunteering has long been recognised as a meaningful way to contribute to community. Increasingly, research is also showing that volunteering can play an important role in supporting mental health and overall wellbeing.

In this special webinar, Grow Well Together: Benefits of Volunteering, audiences heard from some of Australia’s passionate voices in gardening, community and volunteering about why giving your time may also be one of the healthiest things you can do.

The conversation featured beloved gardening personality Costa Georgiadis alongside Mark Pearce (CEO of Volunteering Australia), who shared insights into the growing evidence linking volunteering with improved life satisfaction, resilience and social connection.

The webinar also explored the emerging concept of “social prescribing”, where healthcare professionals connect people with community activities to support wellbeing and recovery. As communities continue to seek preventative approaches to health, volunteering is increasingly being recognised as a valuable pathway to connection, purpose and belonging.

Audiences also heard firsthand stories from volunteers at Kings Park and Botanic Garden, including Katherine Choules, Tony Dickinson and Gillian Marshall. Their experiences highlighted the unique role botanic gardens play as spaces where people can connect with nature, contribute to conservation and education, and build meaningful relationships with others.

Combining time outdoors, shared purpose and community participation, botanic gardens offer more than beautiful landscapes — they create opportunities for people to grow well together.

Missed Episode 1 all about Youth and Gardens? You can watch it here.

Find out more about Botanic Gardens week here.

Julia Watson

May 12, 2026

BGANZ

Events, Featured, News
Growing Strong Futures: Grow Well Series Episode 1

As part of the 2026 Grow Well Series for Botanic Gardens Week 2026, Episode 1 shines a light on the powerful role gardens play in shaping healthier futures for young people.

In conversation with Peter Dawe from the Youth Community Greening Program at the Botanic Gardens of Sydney, a clear message emerges: gardens are far more than green spaces—they are places of transformation.

Working with young people across diverse communities, Peter and his team see the impact every day. Simply stepping into a garden can shift a young person’s state of mind.

“You can just see their whole demeanour change… they just relax and they just feel good about themselves.”

In a time where many young people face increasing mental health challenges, gardens offer something simple yet profound: space to breathe, connect, and belong.

The program goes beyond planting. It creates environments where every participant has a voice, where learning is hands-on, and where confidence can grow alongside plants. As Peter reflects, the outcomes often reach deeper than expected:

“I just assumed that we were helping them build a garden, but they said that we helped them build a connection to the garden and a connection to the school.”

This sense of connection—to place, to community, and to self—is at the heart of this year’s theme, Where Your Health Grows.

Peter Dawe has been the Lead: Youth Community Greening for the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney for the last twelve years and has been delivering environmental education to students and communities for the last 35 years. This experience combined with a Masters of Environmental Management, Bachelor of Education and Diploma of Sustainability provide him with the expertise, knowledge and passion to deliver such an important message and program.

As Botanic Gardens Week approaches, this episode invites us all to reflect on the role green spaces play in our own wellbeing—and to experience it for ourselves.

🌿 Visit your local botanic garden
🌿 Take part in the Grow Well challenge
🌿 Discover where your health grows.

Read more about the Youth Community Greening Programme in Peter Dawe’s article in our BGANZ Magazine:

Julia Watson

May 4, 2026

Botanic Gardens Week, News

Featured