Thursday Talks

Our Thursday lunchtime talks cover diverse aspects of the natural world in Australia and around the globe.

The talks are aimed at a general audience and everyone is welcome. Talks last for 1 hour. We welcome donations by gold coins, notes, or electronically. The Friends use donations to support Gardens’ programs and development and we thank all those who have donated.

It is a good idea to reserve a seat in advance, as talks can book out very quickly. The booking link for each talk is on the Friends calendar website entry for the respective talk. Bookings can be made about 30 days in advance until Wednesday night before the talk.

Please direct queries about the talks to the Thursday Talks Team

Thursday Talks 2025

13 February

Dr Jane Roberts

Macrophytes in upland ACT streams: overlooked and under-rated

20 February

Dr John Turnbull

Emigrant eucalypts: successes and failures

27 February

Phillippa Alvarez

The bottleneck and the beginning of the plant universe: thermal tolerance in the early stages of a plant's lifecycle

6 March

Brad Desmond

Small seeds, big impact: how dedicated small-scale projects can save Australia's threatened flora

13 March

Associate Professor Benjamin Schwessinger

Pest monitoring in the ANBG

20 March

Dr Luke Keogh

Museum collections and Australia's gardens

27 March

Brad Opdyke

Paleoclimate records and stratigraphy from Lake George: what we can learn about climate change and our future

3 April

Dr Kylie Cairns

Dispelling the wild dog myth

10 April

Professor David Linenmeyer

A 25-year experiment to document the effects of large-scale plantation transformation on forest biodiversity

17 April

Dr Peter Fullagar and Chris Davey

Potential impacts of rodent eradication program on the Lord Howe Island lowland terrestrial avifauna

24 April

Emma Cooke

Breaking family ties: The genetic rescue of Canberra's Purple Pea population

Please see the Friends calendar website for a detailed description of each talk.