A tiny park in West Hobart has been planted with a sapling descended from a ginkgo tree that survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
The young ginkgo tree arrived in Hobart five years ago as one of 20 tiny seeds gifted to Hobart by the City of Hiroshima under the global Mayors for Peace project.
The City of Hobart nursery team carefully germinated and raised the seeds until they were large enough to plant in West Hobart’s Peace Park in honour of International Day of Peace.
The tree is descended from a ginkgo tree that survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. The bomb scorched and stripped bare Hiroshima’s ginkgo trees just as they were in full leaf, and yet less than a year later green shoots appeared in a landscape torn by war and the atomic bomb.
A park for peace
Among the special guests at the tree planting was Amanda Stark from SERVAS Australia, an international non-profit voluntary organisation building peace through personal contact among people of different cultures.
Amanda once taught with Joan Fitz-Nead, who, along with Rachel Cocks, was instrumental in establishing West Hobart’s Peace Park in 1986 to celebrate the International Year of Peace.
She remembers Joan with great fondness.
“She was a very concerned environmentalist, worried about what was going to happen in the future with the world’s environment and keen about peace and promoting conservation of the natural environment,” says Amanda.
“I think the peace park was her way of expressing that in a local area.”
The park runs between Liverpool Crescent and Forest Road in West Hobart. Prospect Place and Roberts Street run from Forest Road to the Peace Park.
Hobart is deeply honoured to become a custodian of the descendants of these survivor trees and as a place of hope and is one of 88 cities outside of Japan that received the special seeds from Hiroshima.
We would like to thank everyone who was involved in this very special tree planting, including students from Goulburn Street Primary School, who brought with them beautiful origami peace cranes.
There are four other ginkgo trees from Hiroshima and plans are underway to have them planted in parks across Hobart.
