Staff swap signals a new step in budding relationship for Singapore and Toowoomba Region

Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay and Toowoomba’s Carnival of Flowers are two peas in a pod despite being 6000km apart. The two tourism destinations, both known for their garden artistry, have taken another step in their budding relationship with a recent collaboration to commemorate the 75th Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers. Toowoomba Region Mayor Geoff McDonald said Council’s gardening teams have been sharing information for years with their counterparts in Singapore. “Gardens by the Bay first sent staff here in 2018, including a six-month exchange for a senior horticulturist to get a first-hand experience on how we prepare for Carnival,” Mayor McDonald said. “This year we sent one of our gardeners to Singapore for two weeks on a knowledge sharing visit and to help prepare the Gardens by the Bay display commemorating the 75th Anniversary of Carnival of Flowers,” he said. In a major coup for the Toowoomba Region, it is the first location in Australia to feature in the rotating pop-up displays at the Gardens by the Bay, which will attract between 500,000 and 700,000 viewers over two months. “Rated No 8 in the world on travel website Tripadvisor’s Travellers’ Choice Awards in 2024, this is an international promotion which puts the Toowoomba Region at the centre of a world-class tourist attraction,” Mayor McDonald said. “Gardens by the Bay has a multidisciplinary in-house team of skilled landscape designers, horticulturists, arborists, engineers, plant health, garden and turf management experts to continuously curate these new pop-up gardens. “With the display highlighting our region we jumped at the chance to have a Council gardener take part. “They are a world class attraction using innovative technologies and ideas and this allows us to provide some personal development for our staff. I hope it is the first step to a regular exchange program between the two organisations.” Council gardener Julie Stoddart described Gardens by the Bay as ‘horticultural heaven’. “For me, it was one of those wow experiences. I never thought that I would get the opportunity to be able to travel to another country and, work within a team of expert horticulturalists, to set up such a beautiful display,” Julie said. “When the expression of interest came out, I applied with a little bit of mixed emotions. We work very hard in Queen's Park to, to pull off the carnival display, and the trip to Singapore sat right in the middle of Carnival,” she said. “Part of me wanted to be here with my team and a part of me really wanted to be in Singapore. In the end I went knowing that it was a once in a lifetime experience.” There was also a bit of serendipity for Julie as she teamed up with Grace Yang, who was the horticulturist who spent six months in Toowoomba on the initial exchange. “Grace spent six months with us here in the Botanic Gardens to learn all the plantings and the designs of how we do our Carnival display, and she took that knowledge home with her, and it certainly paid off,” Julie said. The team creating the Carnival of Flowers display had a strict deadline of five days from when the old display, based on the life of French painter Monet, finished to plant the new one. “Because the exhibit was open during the day we could only work when it was closed so we would start work from 7.30pm and work right through to the early hours of the morning to get it done,” she said. “But what really stood out to me was it felt like home. It actually felt like I was in the Botanic Gardens, and that was very sentimental. “They did an amazing job at representing not only our Carnival of Flowers, but our region and also our country.” The Garden by the Bay Carnival of Flowers exhibit runs until November 17.