By Cassandra Pulver

The momentum gathered throughout the journey of the first stage of this world-class project has now culminated to Stage Two seeking innovative, forward thinking tenders with local participation and input.

The Mossman Botanic Garden (MBG) project is a grass roots community project that originated in 2010. The original group of Mossman businesses and residence took the project from its inception through to the development and completion of Mossman Botanic Garden Stage One – securing the land.

The vision of MBG is to create

• a world class botanic garden and research station for Australia's wet tropics
• an important part of the regional community providing local jobs, investment and business opportunities
• a community recreational facility developed from community engagement fostering pride and achievement in the region
• a tourist attraction and rainforest arboretum that cultivates, conserves and showcases significant plants, ecosystems and products of Australia’s World Heritage wet tropics
• horticultural, educational and conservation support of scientific research facilities such as the Australian Tropical Herbarium situated at JCU
• when developed, MBG will demonstrate that rainforests are a vital ecosystem, with cultural, environmental and economic relevance.
  
  

Mossman is the traditional home to the Kuku Yalanji people and this project will support and foster their connection to the land and become a learning resource. For the Aboriginal people of the wet tropics region the rainforest is closely interwoven with their spiritual beliefs, knowledge systems, relationships and economic use including food, medicine and tools. Natural features like plants, fruits, animals, mountains, rivers and seasons are key as they symbolise the dreamtime, lore, stories and meaning of the land. As an educational resource the MBG would be a unique Aboriginal teaching facility placed to service the schools and communities of Cape York and the wet tropics in the first instance, but also have global relevance. 

This vision was taken to Government along with the sales particulars of 50 acres of cane land in the historic heart of Mossman, adjacent to existing amenities and bounded on two sides by a forested creek. A preliminary plan outlined the design, potential facilities, objectives, community benefits and support, economic opportunities and the business case for the MBG. 

The Commonwealth government could also see the exciting potential of a Botanic Garden in Mossman and committed $1.4m to the project through the Community Development Grants Programme (Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development). In January 2015 the majority of this funding was used to purchase the 50 acre block of land along Foxton Avenue (Captain Cook Hwy) at the junction of Goobidi Creek, the Mossman River.

The remaining sum has been carefully allocated to MBG Creation - Stage Two.  The MBG Creation Stage Two will lead to a ‘shovel ready’ project by April 2016.

Part-time Project Manager, Rebecca Pearse is on board to help manage Stage Two of the Project, which is the process of tendering for consultants to design a Master Plan and Business Development for the garden. This process will take until April next year when there will be an official launch on site of the next stage of the project MBG – Stage Three Implementation!

“Mossman Botanic Garden is set to become an indispensable part of the local and regional community - I am really excited to be a small part of this great project - it's going to be great seeing it develop over the next year,” said Rebecca.

The Master Plan will involve consultation with stakeholder organisations as well as a public consultation process to incorporate the community’s views, the creation of a ‘Friends of Mossman Botanic Gardens’ to represent the community and help shape the gardens’ future. This is a very exciting time when MBG is looking for fresh ideas and innovation and it is hoped that there will be a strong local component tendering for the contracts.

Contractors need a track record in business development and botanic garden design and planning. It is particularly key that planning is for the inception of the garden, growth and through to maturity.  The key components of the garden need to be identified from information centre and nursery through to ideas such as an art centre or performance space. Alongside this the major themes of the garden need to be developed for example coastal, wetland, highlands, Iron Range, Mt Lewis etc. Food garden, canopy walk, preservation garden, rare restricted plants, animal /bird relationships.

Tenders will be considered by the Board according to an evaluation criteria that will incorporate a weighting for considerations such as local participation, innovation, track record and references.

The next phase will be the exciting process of public consultation, engagement, planning both for the physical garden and how to raise the capital to build the garden, and how the business will be operated sustainably.

Further information is available from Rebecca and companies interested in submitting a tender should ask for further information on items such as Conditions of Tender, the evaluation criteria and budget available. 

Tenders must be received by the 14th September and interested parties should contact Project Manager, Rebecca Pearse on 0428 866 147 or email at rebecca@argonavis.com.au