On Thursday 16 June 2011, the Honourable Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Sailele Malielegaoi, Prime Minister of the Independent State of Samoa, and Mrs Gillian Muriel Malielegaoi, have joined Speaker of the ACT Legislative Assembly, Mr Shane Rattenbury, to plant a bunya pine in the Central Valley at the National Arboretum Canberra.
The bunya pine is an evergreen conifer with very large cones some 25-30 centimetres in diameter and weighing up to 10 kilograms. This impressive tree grows to 35 metres in height and 15 metres in width. This Speices, Araucaria bidwillii, is native to Australia.
Last November the ACT Government donated three emergency services vehicles to the Samoan Fire and Emergency Services. This tree will represent this growing relationship between the ACT and Samoa.