Ribbons of Green

During the 1980s and into the early 1990s, many Darwin schools and some community organisations contributed to the construction of tree belts in the city and suburbs through the Ribbons of Green Program. 

Trees were given to these groups, who undertook to plant and maintain them. The program gave schools and other groups ownership of the greening and beautification of significant areas in both Darwin and Palmerston. Signage acknowledging each school and group was placed in the greening areas under their management. Planting, care and maintenance were the assigned responsibilities. 

With the passage of time, the program was discontinued, signs removed, and the planted trees and other species left to run the gauntlet with nature’s aid. That took away the sense of belonging that schools and sponsoring groups felt about the landscape.  

Nowadays, trees are planted, given a little start with watering, and left to grow in an unrestrained, untended manner. Come cyclones. We reap the consequences, but management plans are never modified or upgraded to prevent future catastrophes.  Surely, change is necessary.