On a glorious autumn day, members of corporate Australia ditched the office to help create a bee boulevard on the historic main street of Hall.
It was fortuitous timing, with World Bee Day marked on Friday, emphasising the hard-working little pollinators are under threat and more needs to be done to ensure they survive and thrive.
Staff from Salesforce and its partner Capgemini, companies which both work in the public service industry in Canberra, dedicated Thursday to planting flowering plants, building garden beds, and weeding and tidying existing gardens along Victoria Street to add to Hall's aim to be a model bee-friendly community.
Rotary Club of Hall community convener Jonathan Palmer said their contribution had been invaluable, as Hall encouraged as many bees as possible.
"If you walk around Hall, every garden has a bee-friendly sign and everyone has information about how to work a garden in a pollinator-friendly way," he said.
"This main street planting is part of our awareness-raising, so it's just great to have Salesforce and Capgemini out here helping us at a perfect time of year."
The staff, from Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney offices, donated 200 volunteer hours to the cause, including planting bulbs for Floriade in the Memorial Grove recognising fallen soldiers from Hall.
Salesforce senior vice-president Charles Woodall came from Sydney to help at Hall, saying all staff were allocated days in their working year to give back to the community.
"What's really important to us is giving back," Mr Woodall said.
Capgemini vice-president Simon Blainey said it was great for the staff to do something together.
"With the last two-and-a-half years we've had, the ability for our teams to meet and connect and do something that's not screen-based, it's not transactional - it builds better relationships, it benefits us as a business and it benefits the Canberra community," he said.
Mr Palmer said the support had been uplifting.
"The people of Hall are a great community and they roll up their sleeves, but to see so many young people out is really heartening and it makes a big difference," he said.
"It's wonderful to see this support of corporates for us and for the environment. I think their philosophy of encouraging their staff to give back to the community is absolutely something all companies should emulate and we're delighted to be the recipient of their efforts."
The local Men's Shed also kept everyone going with a barbecue at lunchtime.
