City of Darwin has a strategic direction of creating a cool, clean and green city. To support that we have a number of tree planting programs aimed at increasing canopy coverage, boosting biodiversity and providing shady, cool pedestrian linkages to make Darwin a better place to live.
2030 Greening Darwin Strategy
As part of the City of Darwin’s response to the Climate Change Emergency, in 2021 the City of Darwin adopted a ten-year Greening Strategy. The strategy informs council's way forward in terms of how we manage our urban forest, what trees we plant, and where, how we bolster the environmental values of our urban bushland areas and sets clear targets for us to measure our success against as we deliver on the strategy.
Tree Planting Program Overview
City of Darwin delivers our tree planting programs in various ways, to ensure trees are going into the community where they are needed most. Our diverse programs deliver trees in private residences and schools, in our streets and parks and into our urban bushland areas.
Native tree give-away program:
This program aims to influence greening, shading, cooling and biodiversity outcomes on privately-owned land and in schools by providing native plants at no cost to City of Darwin residents, community groups and schools.
Customer request tree planting program:
This program provides street trees on verges by allowing residents to request trees to be planted by City of Darwin. This is an opt-in program that requires residents to commit to providing their street trees with ongoing water and care following planting.
Street and Park tree planting program:
This program strategically plants trees in City of Darwin parks and streets in order to support councils strategic directions of a Cool, Clean and Green City, and a Safe, Liveable and Healthy City. These trees are planted and maintained entirely by City of Darwin.
East Point Reserve Revegetation Program:
This program looks to continue the successful revegetation program carried out at East Point reserve by planting 3,000 native trees per year.
Rapid Creek revegetation program:
This program looks to continue the successful revegetation program carried out at Rapid Creek by planting 1,000 native trees per year.
Budget Allocation by Program (4yr comparison)
Our tree planting projects budgets focus heavily on tree care and maintenance to ensure our young trees have the best chance to grow into trees that will be a long term asset to the whole community. Actually, planting the tree is one small aspect of establishing an urban forest that will deliver the shading, cooling and greening outcomes City of Darwin is committed to.
Program Targets and Outcomes
Our tree planting targets to date have been set by Council following Cyclone Marcus to aid in the rapid replanting of Darwin following that event. As a result, the targets displayed include the total number of trees being maintained under our programs, not just the number of trees planted in each financial year.
Targets vs Outcomes (Total)
Targets vs Outcomes (by FY)
FY 2020/21 Note:
- East Point Reserve Revegetation Program: 0 Trees (Planned for May 2022)
- Rapid Creek revegetation program: 0 Trees (Planned for December 2021)
Plantings by Program (excl. ongoing maintenance)
Revegetation Plantings
Tree Planting Locations
This data represents the total amount of street and park trees planted in Darwin suburbs. Following Cyclone Marcus tree planting was directed to areas that suffered the largest loss of trees and canopy coverage, and you can see that reflected in the statistics. Those suburbs are now well on their way to recovering some of the shade, cooling and biodiversity values they had prior to the cyclone.