Saturday 8th June 2019
Sydenham Botanic Park, Millers Rd, Brookfield
All welcome
Morning tea provided
BYO Spade
Dinosaurs at Sydenham Botanic Park
We invite you to step back in time 70 million years this summer to an age when dinosaurs roamed New Zealand!
Now in it’s second year, DinoFest is back with more dinosaurs, more roaring, and more chomping!
Meet Rexy and Roxy our two-legged meat-eating dinosaurs, baby dinosaurs, and ‘Big Herb’ our plant eating titanosaur…
Learn more about the prehistoric ferns, cycads and conifer trees whose descendants still grow in the gardens today!
The event is set in Sydenham Botanic Park, amongst the beautiful pines and cycads which grew in New Zealand millions of year’s ago.
Tickets include a Dino Dig, ‘Feel a Fossil,’ kids dinosaur tattoos, sieving for fossil sharks teeth, (genuine 55 million years old – you get to keep one), art activities, and a Jurassic Dinosaur Trail (meet the dinosaur discovered in New Zealand).
Free entry for children under 2 on the day of DinoFest.
This event is brought to you by Eventosaurus and Tauranga City Council.
Tickets at eventfinda:
https://www.eventfinda.co.nz/2018/dinosaurs-at-sydenham-botanic-park/tauranga
Carols in the Park
Carols in the Park – Sydenham Botanic Park, Brookfield, Tauranga
1st December at 6:30pm, Free entry
Carols in the Park, providing the community with a family friendly event to celebrate Christmas.
Come and enjoy an evening of carols singing and music in beautiful Sydenham Botanic Park.
Bring a picnic or enjoy the variety of hot food and drinks available for sale.
Family Outdoor Movie Night
Family movie night in the park Saturday 8th April.
Organisers Night Owl Cinema. Details from their facebook page:
Outdoor cinema for the Brookfield and surrounding communities!
Activities and entertainment from 4pm with Tauranga Samba, local kapa haka and a Burma trail organised by the local Scouts!
Delicious food options from The Street Food Union with The Milk Bar, Toro Churro, El Cartel and Hair-raisingly good mobile coffee.
Movie screens at dark around 6:30pm.
Proudly supported by amazing local Niki Gorman and Good Neighbour – thank you so much for your involvement!
Christmas Carols in the Park
2nd December 2016 from 7pm – 8:30pm
Come along and enjoy an evening in this lovely park while listening to Christmas carols.
Featuring the Tauranga Civic Choir, Salvation Army Band, and Bellevue School Choir.
All welcome! Bring a rug or cushion if you wish.
Share the event with friends on facebook.
Wetland planting great success!
Tauranga Girls College environment class in association with Trees for Survival recently planted a selection of grass’s in Sydenham Botanic Park wetland area. A big thank you to everyone involved!
It’s great to see the progress being made in the wetland area. Next time you’re visiting the park be sure to go for a wander down to the back and check out the new landscaping. If you’re interested in donating some plants to this project here’s the link to our wetland plant wishlist.
Join our park working bees
Sydenham Botanic Park is being developed by a volunteer advisory group working with Tauranga City Council.
If you would like to help keep the park looking good please turn up and assist at our next working bee:
Thursday 25th February 10.00am to 12.00pm
If you have any questions call Brian Hodge phone 576 5933 or 021 1228735
And in the meantime enjoy the park and use it as much as possible.
Keep up to date with activity by following Sydenham Botanic Park on facebook and here on our website.
Brian Hodge
Chairman of the Advisory Group.
Park wetland development
Progress is being made on the wetland development at the southern lower end of the park. The wetland is fed by the parks own Poukapu Springs. Water ways and drains are being opened up and the exotic vegetation and weeds cleared to make way for planting native wetland and wet tolerant species over several years.
A list of preferred plants for the parks lower walkway and wetland area has been created after consultation with local ecologist Sarah Beadel. This list is designed to enhance the parks Gondwanaland experience and showcase indigenous species that occur naturally in Tauranga’s Ecological District, or would probably have been present in the past. View the full list here: wetland plant list.
If you are interested in supporting the park by sponsoring a plant or donating plants of your own please contact us.
Brookfield Christmas Party
Local community groups are holding a Brookfield Christmas Party at Sydenham Botanic Park.
Saturday 12th December 1-4pm.
A range of stalls and activities are planned. All welcome.
Join us for a Mid-Winter Tree and Bulb Planting

Arbor day at Rata School 1894. (click on image to enlarge)
Child, Edward George, 1860-1949 :Photographs of the Ohingaiti district. Ref: 1/1-011003-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/22741450
Bring your family and friends along to our our next Sydenham Park planting at 2.00pm on Saturday 20th June as a Mid-winter/Arbor Day Celebration.
We will plant four Norfolk Pines to add to the Araucaria Collection and some Cabbage trees to extend the Native Collection.
We have 596 (give or take) daffodil bulbs for people to plant to increase the number in the front of the park, so bring your trowel and give it a go!
New Zealand’s first Arbor Day planting was in Greytown in the Wairarapa on 3 July 1890.
Born in 1855, Dr Leonard Cockayne (generally recognised as the greatest botanist who has lived, worked, and died in New Zealand) worked extensively on native plants throughout New Zealand and wrote many notable botanical texts. Even as early as the 1920s he held a vision for school students of New Zealand to be involved in planting native trees and plants in their school grounds. This vision bore fruit and schools in New Zealand have long planted native trees on Arbor Day.
Planting enquiries please email: sydenhambotanicpark@gmail.com