Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth IIPrint Page

The Queen’s Jubilee Fruit Forest of trees commemorate the Platinum Jubilee of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II and acknowledges her 70 years of service as Australia`s Head of State. 

The project received funding of $8,909 from the Queen`s Platinum Jubilee Tree Planting Program which will run from 2021-2024. The project will plant fruit trees, install a commemorative plaque and hold an event in honour of The Queen’s Jubilee. This will create sustainable food sources, enhance shade for students and provide additional habitat for native fauna.

Elizabeth II (21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during her lifetime, and was head of state of 15 realms at the time of her death. Her reign of 70 years and 214 days was the longest of any British monarch and the longest verified reign of any female monarch in history.  
 

A garden of trees commemorating Queen Elizabeth the Second’s Platinum Jubilee were unveiled in an intimate ceremony at Cannonvale State School last week. The end-of-project event - which received funding from the State Government’s Planting Trees for the Queen’s Jubilee Program - saw students, teachers, Parents and Community Association (P&C) representatives, and Whitsunday Regional Councillor Jan Clifford plant the project’s last tree: a lychee.

Led by the school’s Principal Angie Kelly and Health Teacher Erin Moore, the event concluded the planting of the Cannonvale State School’s “Queen’s Jubilee Fruit Forest”, which hosts 26 various species of plants.

“It’s time - not tomorrow, not well into the future – but now that we rewrite the future we have, and the future we have for our children, and our children’s children,” Principal Kelly said. “We know there is no place better to start than here. It seems so little – this garden – but to me it is so big.”

The Garden stretches between the school’s pool and tennis courts and was spearheaded by Health Teacher Erin Moore.

Ms Moore said having an active garden of fruits coincided with the school’s ecological message of sustainability. “It is a great privilege to receive this very worthwhile government grant which will honour the Queen for her remarkable 70 years of service,” Ms Moore said. “The Queen represents longevity, and I hope these trees will experience that too. My hope is, in another 70 years’ time, these trees will continue to provide shade, beauty, purification of the air, and a range of delicious fruits for school children.”

The completed Garden also aligns with the school’s Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden – a hands-on learning program delivering food education to primary students. “A lot of the fruits are things the students may not have tried before. It exposes them to a range of foods now and shows them the growing process,” Ms Moore said. “Already, we’ve been making food in our Kitchen Gardens from fruits grown at the school, and this will only improve that.”

Councillor Jan Clifford presented a lychee tree as the final addition to the Queen’s Jubilee Fruit Forest on behalf of Whitsunday Regional Council.
Mackay & Whitsunday Life, 24 November 2022. 

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