{"id":228787,"date":"2019-02-16T16:29:30","date_gmt":"2019-02-16T06:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=228787"},"modified":"2020-07-24T13:11:27","modified_gmt":"2020-07-24T03:11:27","slug":"harry-nurtures-his-love-of-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2019\/02\/16\/harry-nurtures-his-love-of-nature\/","title":{"rendered":"Harry Nurtures His Love Of Nature"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Harry Franz’s garden includes a collection of cycads and grass trees … he says there’s at least four different species of grass trees (xanthorrhoea) growing in the South Burnett<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

February 16, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the outskirts of Kingaroy there’s an amazing garden full of rare plants, and an amazing man who knows all about them.<\/p>\n

There’s rainforest trees, cycads, ferns, grasstrees, bottlebrushes, native ferns … the list goes on.<\/p>\n

Many are native to south-east Queensland’s dry rainforests and some still barely exist in the wild.<\/p>\n

There’s even Pheballium distans<\/em>, of Tessmanns Road North fame.<\/p>\n

Harry Franz built his first bush house to raise native plants back in 1970 when he was just 16.<\/p>\n

He says he inherited his love of gardening from his family.<\/p>\n

“My mum and dad, aunties and uncles, and grandmother were all keen gardeners,” he told southburnett.com.au<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Harry’s family has deep roots – if you’ll pardon the pun – in the South Burnett.<\/p>\n

His mother’s side dates back to the 1850s when his great-great grandfather arrived to work on Taabinga Station.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There’s family connections to Goodes Inn (the first commercial building in Nanango) as well as the Moore Stone House and there’s even a relative, Charlie Williams, buried outside the walls at the historic Taromeo cemetery (which he built).<\/p>\n

His father’s family dates back to 1908 when his grandfather selected land in Nanango.<\/p>\n

Harry grew up on the family farm and developed a strong love for all the native trees and animals.<\/p>\n

He’s got little patience now for people who deny – for political reasons – that the climate’s changing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Climate change is here. We have it in our gardens, it’s in the bush. Climate change is killing trees in the bush,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The climate is really making it hard. The temperature can be up in the 30s now in August with hot blasts of wind.<\/p>\n

“I have seen plants that have not set one seed. They flower but don’t set seed.<\/p>\n

“It’s affecting our grass pastures as well.”<\/p>\n

Harry\u00a0bought his 2ha block, which had formerly been under cultivation, in 1992 and at that time it was almost treeless.<\/b><\/p>\n

Since then, bunya pines, hoop pines, cycads, xanthorrhoea – many grown from seed – have flourished under his care.<\/p>\n

Harry’s favourite is\u00a0Podocarpus elatus<\/em> – the brown pine or Illawarra plum – an important bush tucker tree which produces edible berries.<\/p>\n

He’s also a fan of\u00a0Callitris baileyi<\/em> –\u00a0Bailey’s cypress pine – which is native to the South Burnett area.<\/p>\n

For the green thumbs among you, Harry’s collection of plants also includes:<\/p>\n