General News
5 June, 2025
Blue tree stands tall for mental health
MAREEBA has now become one of over 1,400 locations across the globe to have a painted blue tree standing tall and bright to raise awareness about mental health.
The Blue Tree Project began in 2019 after a young Australian man lost his life to suicide. The symbol of the blue tree aims to spark important conversations about mental health issues.
The blue tree in Mareeba was painted by the Pendenza and Plowman families and is located along the right-hand side of the Kennedy Highway, just before the Malone Road turnoff (if heading towards Cairns).
The idea was sparked by Marcello Pendenza and Bob Plowman after visiting Tasmania for a holiday and noticing a couple of blue trees during their travels.
After finding out what it stood for, the men thought it would be a good idea to bring it to Mareeba.
“I wanted to do it because we haven’t got anything up here in recognition of mental health, and I know a lot of people who are going through mental health problems,” Mr Pendenza said.
“I thought, ‘well I’ve got the property on Malone Road and there’s a thousand trees there’, so I thought I’d pick one and paint it.
“Hopefully people will talk about it and discover what it means because so many people have got mental health issues that you don’t know of. It could be a small problem, a big problem, or anything in between.
“But when people see it and don’t know what it means, it could start a conversation and help people be more aware of mental health issues. I just thought it was a nice thing to do.”
The families painted it over the course of a year whenever they had free time, and it was made possible by a donation from Mitre 10 and the help of a local plumber’s scissor lift.
“Mitre 10 here in Mareeba donated 15L of paint for free and the local plumbers at A.P.L Plumbing let me borrow their scissor lift to get to the higher spots we couldn’t reach, so I would like to thank them both,” Mr Pendenza said.
