There is a plan taking shape for what the world should see when it arrives in 2032, and it is not a stadium. The Queensland Wattle Association is proposing Project Brisbane Gold — an initiative to plant thousands of native wattles across Queensland, particularly the south-east, in the years before the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the ABC reported on Monday. The hope is flowers through parks, roadsides and the areas around major Games precincts.
"I want to see Brisbane and south-east Queensland bathed in green and gold," association president Mike Gilmour said.
The botany cooperates. The Brisbane Golden Wattle — Acacia fimbriata — typically blooms from mid-July to mid-August, which lands squarely on the Games. The catch is lead time: with less than six years to go, the association says planting has to begin soon for the trees to establish. "What better way than to have wattle planted now, so we can get them doing their job, blooming green and gold during 2032," Gilmour said.
Ten thousand seeds and counting
The association has already collected about 10,000 seeds, some travelling a considerable distance. Thousands came from Ann Gibbons, a resident of Miles, for whom the idea of her backyard carrying an Olympic legacy holds particular weight. "To see our wattle trees lining roads and infrastructure during the 2032 Olympics would be thrilling," she said. "We are passionate Australians and probably more passionate Queenslanders."
The ambition runs past the landscaping. The group would like wattle worked into the Games themselves — a symbolic image on the medals, blossoms in the winners' bouquets, imagery on uniforms and through the marketing. For Gilmour it is about standing for the national floral emblem the way other countries stand for theirs: "We should be as proud of our national floral emblem as the Canadians are of their maple leaf, as the Kiwis are of their silver fern."
The honest caveat
None of this is a done deal, and the association is not pretending otherwise. Landscaping decisions around Olympic and Paralympic venues and public spaces will ultimately involve Games organisers, governments, local councils and other authorities — and no response from any of them appears in the ABC's report. Whether Project Gold takes root, as the report puts it, remains to be seen.
The timing of the pitch is deliberate. Monday 1 September is National Wattle Day, and the association hopes the date gives its case another push. Gilmour's closing image is the one the campaign is built on: "What better way of welcoming our athletes and welcoming visitors to Brisbane and south-east Queensland than having green and gold on our streets, around the facilities, as well as having it on the platform inside."
Six years out from the biggest event this city will ever host, most of the arguments are about budgets, venues and transport. This one is about trees that flower in the right fortnight. It may be the easiest yes on the whole 2032 list — and even if the Games machinery never formally adopts it, wattle planted now blooms regardless.