On Thursday 15 March 2012, Mr Aldo Giurgola AO joined the Chief Minister Ms Katy Gallagher MLA in planting a Hoop pine in the Central Valley at the National Arboretum Canberra.
This planting was to formally recognise his outstanding achievements in architecture. He was a founding partner of the firm that won the international design competition for Australia’s new Parliament House in 1980 and was a member of the National Arboretum Canberra competition jury in 2004, which selected the ‘100 Forests 100 Gardens’ as the winning design.
Mr Giurgola expressed his wish to participate in a ceremony on 15 March as this date is particularly significant to him. It is the date Julius Caesar’s army crossed the Rubicon river in 49BC, creating the idiom ‘crossing the Rubicon’ referring to a point of no return.
The Hoop pine is native to eastern Australia and also Papua New Guinea. There are several specimens growing successfully in Canberra including those at the Australian National University and the Australian National Botanic Gardens. It is an excellent host for native fauna.