The Botanical Ark

Alan and Susan Carle have spent the past 40 years unlocking the nutritional secrets of the world’s rainforests. In 1978, the couple set off with their backpack to South and Central America. Eleven months later they returned to Australia with a newborn baby and more than 80 exotic plant species.

It was to be the start of a life’s work that continues today on the Carle’s own patch of paradise in the beautiful Whyanbeel Valley in Far North Queensland. A former cow paddock, the property has been transformed into an oasis of tropical rainforest diversity – a place called The Botanical Ark.

The Botanical Ark is about conservation through understanding, highlighting sustainable living in tropical environments.  With over 40 years of research, experimentation and development, The Botanical Ark has visited more than 40 countries around the tropical world to gain insight in to environmental and cultural factors that can lead to man living in harmony with their environment.