Macquarie Countdown

At 9.30 am this morning, as a rain shower passed through, Premier Keneally planted a Sydney Red Gum (Angophora costata) on Bennelong Lawn in Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens.

The tree was grown from seed collected from an elderly specimen on the way to Mrs Macquaries Point - on what we call the 'southern island'. That tree is either a remnant, or an ancestor of a remnant, of a tree growing on Farm Cove when the Macquaries arrived in late 1809.

On 1 January 1810, Lachlan Macquarie was sworn in as the fifth Governor of New South Wales. Today's ceremony, in the presence of the Macquarie 2010 Bicentenary Commemoration Committee (chaired by the Hon John Aquilina MP), is the just the start of a year celebrating the contributions of Lachlan and Elizabeth Macquarie.

In six years, on 13 June 2016, we'll be celebrating the bicentenary of our very own botanic gardens, created and 'opened' by Governor Macquarie.