Conference program and speakers

Sunday, 11 September,  Welcome to Kiama

Neil Reilly, Mayor of Kiama

I have represented the Kiama community as a councillor since 2008, including a year as deputy mayor. My qualifications are in marketing, international relations and local government. My career has been in the field of advertising and marketing, I also served with the Australian Defence Force.

Although retired, I consider being a councillor my job. I am married to Wendy and we have three adult children.

My role in the community is an exceptional opportunity. Imagine having the chance to work in the best place on earth with its best people and contribute to the well-being of both.

Council should be seeking outcomes that give us shared benefits and impose shared responsibilities. There are joys, challenges and critical thinking, I love it.

Aunty Joyce Donovan

Aunty Joyce is  Wodi Wodi and Dharawal elder and a driving force in the establishment of the Aboriginal Medical Service in Coomaditchi (Warrawong) in 1983. She has worked tirelessly for 35 years on Aboriginal health matters. She created the Narinya Grief and Trauma Healing Program and won the University of Technology Sydney Human Rights Award for establishing this program. J

She was recognised as an Australian of the Year, NSW, in 2019 based on her work on child abuse and contribution to Aboriginal health. Joyce felt so strongly about removing the taboo of child sexual abuse that she travelled all over NSW to gain support for marches against child sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities. She travelled thousands of miles conducting healing ceremonies for victims of domestic violence and spreading her message that it takes a whole community to raise a child.

Joyce has a double Bachelor of Arts degree in Adult Education and Community Management from the University of Technology Sydney and a Diploma in Aboriginal Studies and Health Science from Cumberland College. She is a registered nurse and has worked as the Aboriginal Health Education Officer for 24 years in the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District.

Joyce is a strong advocate for people who have no voice. She is a strong believer in empowerment. 

She is a mother of two, grandmother of 11 and great grandmother of 17. 

Presentation topic: Welcome to country, along with her personal journey

Tuesday, 13 September, 9am to 5pm - focus on the present - challenges and opportunities

Lyn Clark, Berry Public School Nursery

Lyn is a retired secondary school teacher – Visual Arts and Design and Technology. Her interest in bush regen began in Bonnet Bay in the Sutherland Shire with her preference for the lushness of rainforest plants that grew in a gully reserve behind our home. She came to live in Berry 22 years ago, buying a property with residual remnant rainforest, which turned out to be primarily a privet forest!

She joined Bundewallah Bushcare to learn to identify local plants, Berry and District Garden Club and APS Nowra branch to learn about gardening. She volunteered at the Berry Public School nursery from 2010 to learn more about propagating local rainforest plants and with the co-ordinators, developed opportunities for children to gain practical skills of plant propagation.

It was clear that succession of local knowledge needed to be recorded so that it could be passed on to future generations. She became co-ordinator for the volunteers about 9 years ago with a view to trial and record successful germination and propagation techniques for seeds that do not conform to conventional propagation methods.

The new primary Science Curriculum coincided with the opening of Natural Studies and Plant Propagation Centre in 2018 added scope for furthering educational opportunities for children and workshops for interested adults.

Presentation topic: 

Growing local indigenous rainforest plants for the community - the Berry Public School nursery story

Bruce Maynard, Agricultural innovator

Bruce Maynard has developed one of the most inspirational regenerative farms in Australia. Fourth generation on his property, he has converted it from conventional practices to a functionally diversified landscape that is showing how adaptation to new farming systems can be practically implemented.

Over his 35 year career on his 1400ha property called "Willydah" near Narromine in NSW he has re-established complex grasslands, planted over 300,000 shrubs and 200,000 trees while travelling around Australia assisting and extending sustainable and regenerative farming practices.

Bruce has become well known for the invention and development of a number of innovations in Agriculture including: No Kill Cropping, Stress Free Stockmanship and Self Herding(with Dr Dean Revell). These substantial farming system advances are making impacts across Australia and internationally with farmers and pastoralists implementing large and small components into their own operations.

Bruce has walked the talk by implementing on his property a change toward farming systems that address present and future challenges. Economically he has been able to increase productivity and margins in his management time while at the same time strongly building the ecological diversity. All of the progress shown has been achieved with significantly lowering the external inputs into the business.

Bruce continues his pioneering work in demonstrating on farm and across Australia that it is possible to grow more, consume less and provide a more diverse future for all.

Presentation topic: Regenerative agriculture and the role of native plants

Dr Rowena Morris

Dr Rowena Morris has worked for over 25 years in fire management, marine planning and various education roles.

Her research interests include managing post fire erosion and applied reserve management.

She enjoys the outdoors, rock pools and travelling to remote locations with her family hunting for interesting rocks.

From 2015 to 2021 she focused on restoring the seabird habitat at Big Island.

Presentation topic: Lessons learnt regenerating Five Islands

Rowena with the help of Jennifer Owens (ranger from Illawarra Highlands Area) will share the lessons learnt in restoring islands and the future directions for Big Island.

Jennifer Owens, Field Officer, National Parks and Wildlife Society

Jen has a Bachelor of Science Honours Degree Majoring in Land and Heritage Management.

She spent several years working in Bush Regeneration as well as one and a half years working for the Soil Conservation Service based in Cronulla where much of the work was focused on coastal erosion and sand dune rehabilitation.

Jen also spent four years working as an Industrial Abseiler in Sydney before NPWS. 

Presentation topic: Lessons learnt regenerating Five Islands

Jennifer will partner with Dr Rowena Morris, to share the lessons learnt in restoring islands and the future directions for Big Island.

Damion Stirling

Presentation topic: The importance of seed collection and provenance

Patsy Nagle

Patsy is a well-connected member of the southern Sydney and Illawarra botanical community who has had a long term love affair with Australian flora - its diversity, ecology and conservation have been front and centre all her life.

A teenage member of Oatley Flora and Fauna and the Australian Plants Society, Patsy has enjoyed, studied, shared, taught and applied botany in her jobs at federal, state, and local levels of government, in private bush regeneration teams, as a vegetation consultant, and as a volunteer herself in many projects.

She currently works as a Ranger for National Parks and Wildlife Service, with the University of Wollongong in the Janet Cosh Herbarium, and with Menai Wildflower Group in their nursery.

She helps students, volunteers, family and friends with management plans, species lists, post-fire rehabilitation, plant identification, and pest and weed controls.

Presentation topic: Models of conservation – from bush care to private land conservation

Dr Kevin Mills

Kevin is a botanist and ecologist who has lived in the Illawarra for over 45 years and has recently retired from environmental consultancy work. He has studied the region’s rainforest for many years and is currently working on various projects, including studies of all offshore islands on the South Coast, a field study and book of the ferns of the south coast, and various floristic and rare plant surveys.

He has authored and co-authored several books on plants including Native Trees of Central Illawarra, Rainforests of the Illawarra District and Native Trees of the NSW South Coast. He is continuing his rainforest studies here and on Norfolk Island, where he is a regular visitor, and on which he has also written extensively, including the book Allan Cunningham: Journal of a Botanist on Norfolk Island in 1830. He is involved in the rehabilitation of habitat on the Five Islands Nature Reserve off Port Kembla and the regeneration of rainforest at the Minnamurra Rainforest Centre in Budderoo National Park.

He is Chair of the NPWS South Coast Regional Advisory Committee and sometime member and Deputy Chair of the NPWS State Council.

Presentation topic; Rainforests – impacts of climate change – past, present and future

Jenny Pierson, Australian Conservancy projects

Presentation topic: Inside and outside the fence

Catriona Bate and Phil Trickett, Leaders of petrophile and isopogon study group

Catriona and Phil’s interest in native plants developed into an obsession after they visited southwest Western Australia. They joined the Australian Native Plant Society in Canberra in 2001 and now also belong to the APS NSW South East and Nowra groups. Their chief interest has always been proteaceae although they have also developed an interest in eremophilas and other desert-loving plants, participating in botanical surveys in the desert as volunteers with the Desert Discovery botany team. They also have a keen interest in two of their local plant communities: Sydney Region sandstone which reaches its southern limit in their area; and Milton Ulladulla Subtropical Rainforest, listed as an endangered ecological community. Their property includes a remnant fragment of the latter and they are involved in post-fire regeneration efforts.

Growing native plants is a joint passion and after outgrowing their small suburban garden in Canberra, they developed a large native garden on the site of an old dairy farm at Little Forest on the south coast of New South Wales. The garden features a large range of local and WA species, many rare. It provides an opportunity to study plants at close hand, including a large range of isopogon and petrophile species, and to trial grafted plants. Catriona and Phil defended their garden in the recent Black Summer bushfires although around one third was lost.

Phil began grafting WA species onto eastern rootstocks more than fifteen years ago, after their attempts to grow the beautiful WA species they fell in love with on visits west failed. Despite expert advice that grafting banksias was not possible, he began with banksias and eventually achieved success with them, also grafting other genera such as eremophilas, hakeas, dryandras, prostantheras and grevilleas. He is also a leading grafter of isopogons and petrophiles. Phil’s grafts can mostly be found in their Little Forest garden but he has also supplied banksia and other grafts to Mount Annan Botanic Gardens and continues to graft banksias for the Banksia Garden at the Australian National Botanic Gardens Canberra.

Catriona and Phil have long been enthusiastic members of many ANPSA study groups. In 2015 they took on the leadership of the Isopogon and Petrophile Study Group. They share duties except Catriona is in charge of the newsletter and Phil is in charge of propagation. There is much to learn and document about these relatively neglected genera, from taxonomy to cultivation, and conservation is becoming increasingly important. They hope to publish the first comprehensive resource about isopogons and petrophiles and continue to contribute to the knowledge and preservation of these amazing plants.

Presentation topic: How to get grafted natives into your garden

Sandra Guy, Sydney Wildlife Rescuer

Sandra Guy has been an environmental educator and information officer for over 25 years; and joined Sydney Wildlife Rescuer ten years ago to volunteer for wildlife rescuer and rehabilitation. 

In this capacity she also acts as a Community Education Coordinator.

Sandra has had a lifelong passion for our native landscapes and the wildlife they support, especially flying foxes; and is keen to share her knowledge and enthusiasm about these keystone species with Australian plant enthusiasts.

Presentation topic: Flying foxes and the essential role they play in the environment now and in the future

Jane Fountain, ANPSA Study Group Coordinator

I have lived in Brisbane’s western suburbs all my life except for a year in 1969 travelling with my husband. Returned home to build a house on 1¼ acres of gum forest in the foothills of Mt Coot-tha. Two sons were welcomed but I became a single parent when they were 4 & 6. 

I was challenged with working out how to garden on a forested block, with a 30m eucalypt 3m from the front door, and it was this that led me to join SGAP Qld in the Western Suburbs Branch.

As I became more involved with SGAP, I also joined a walking group, ladies ‘discussion’ group, Scottish Country Dancing and local Bushcare, while still working at the primary school with all that energy and bounce of young children, social interaction with teachers and the love of teaching. 

My involvement in Native Plants Queensland and ANPSA has increased to a committee position in each level - branch, region and national. Since 2011 I have really enjoyed the inspiration and tours experienced with the conferences, as well as the shared love of discovering more about Australia’s diverse and wonderful native plants.

Presentation topic: The value of ANPSA Study Groups

Lawrie Smith AM, Leader of Garden design study group , Landscape architect - Design with nature

Lawrie is an architect and landscape architect, and from childhood has always been interested in exploring the Australian bush - consequently an active member of SGAP since the late 1960’s, holding various executive positions including ANPSA President; SGAP/NPQ President & Displays Officer. Also Australian Institute Landscape Architects - Queensland President;

He established his landscape consultancy Landplan Studio in Brisbane in 1974, recognised as one of Australia’s progressive landscape architectural consultancies with a wide range of significant experience.

Throughout his career Lawrie has maintained a strong social philosophy primarily concentrating on the provision of specialised parkland, open space developments, as well as involvement with major national and international exhibitions which provide and introduce people to quality urban environments and enhanced lifestyles through innovative landscape and amenity horticulture initiatives.

Lawrie built his career around a strong personal ethos ‘Design with Nature’ in two major areas:

• the unique quality and value of the Australian environment and the flora,
• the provision of quality open space facilities for the community.

This combined philosophy is evident in some of the more significant projects for which he has been responsible:

• World Expo 88 Brisbane; the Australian Gardens at Liverpool International Garden Festival 1984, and International Garden and Greenery Exposition Osaka 1990;
• Regional Botanic Gardens in: Gladstone, Bundaberg, Darwin, Mt. Isa, Longreach, Gold Coast, Barcaldine, Sunshine Coast, Townsville, Tweed, Dubbo, Cairns, Mackay and Whitsunday.
• Roma Street Parkland and Gardens. Located on 16 hectares of disused railway land in central Brisbane, this specialized parkland showcases the subtropical flora of Australia and the world, is arguably the most significant of all his projects.

Over the past forty-five years of practice he has developed a comprehensive knowledge of the plant communities and materials for various regions of Australia, as well as other world regions with similar climatic zones. Retired since 2004, Lawrie has since concentrated on providing specialised assistance for many past projects, family, travel and establishing a new personal native garden.

Presentation topic: The Past Informs the Present and the Future!

Dr Lyndal Thorburn, Leader of the Eremophila Study Group

Dr Lyndal Thorburn took over leadership of the Eremophila Study Group in 2015, a mere 30 years after having joined it.

Lyndal trained in ecology, botany and genetics at Sydney Uni but her career took her in other directions.

She has kept up her interest in all things natural through membership of ANPS groups in Canberra and NSW's SE region, and stints with the ANPSA secretariat, Canberra Ornithologists' Group, Barren Grounds Nature Reserve, Queanbeyan Landcare and the Queanbeyan River Corridor Management Committee.

Lyndal's current mission is to convince the Australian National Botanic Gardens to increase its Eremophila collection and to listen more to the Study Group's experiences in their horticulture.

Presentation topic: The Eremophila Study Group - The Next 50 Years

Catriona Bate and Phil Trickett, Leaders of petrophile and isopogon study group

Catriona and Phil’s interest in native plants developed into an obsession after they visited southwest Western Australia. They joined the Australian Native Plant Society in Canberra in 2001 and now also belong to the APS NSW South East and Nowra groups. Their chief interest has always been proteaceae although they have also developed an interest in eremophilas and other desert-loving plants, participating in botanical surveys in the desert as volunteers with the Desert Discovery botany team. They also have a keen interest in two of their local plant communities: Sydney Region sandstone which reaches its southern limit in their area; and Milton Ulladulla Subtropical Rainforest, listed as an endangered ecological community. Their property includes a remnant fragment of the latter and they are involved in post-fire regeneration efforts.

Growing native plants is a joint passion and after outgrowing their small suburban garden in Canberra, they developed a large native garden on the site of an old dairy farm at Little Forest on the south coast of New South Wales. The garden features a large range of local and WA species, many rare. It provides an opportunity to study plants at close hand, including a large range of isopogon and petrophile species, and to trial grafted plants. Catriona and Phil defended their garden in the recent Black Summer bushfires although around one third was lost.

Phil began grafting WA species onto eastern rootstocks more than fifteen years ago, after their attempts to grow the beautiful WA species they fell in love with on visits west failed. Despite expert advice that grafting banksias was not possible, he began with banksias and eventually achieved success with them, also grafting other genera such as eremophilas, hakeas, dryandras, prostantheras and grevilleas. He is also a leading grafter of isopogons and petrophiles. Phil’s grafts can mostly be found in their Little Forest garden but he has also supplied banksia and other grafts to Mount Annan Botanic Gardens and continues to graft banksias for the Banksia Garden at the Australian National Botanic Gardens Canberra.

Catriona and Phil have long been enthusiastic members of many ANPSA study groups. In 2015 they took on the leadership of the Isopogon and Petrophile Study Group. They share duties except Catriona is in charge of the newsletter and Phil is in charge of propagation. There is much to learn and document about these relatively neglected genera, from taxonomy to cultivation, and conservation is becoming increasingly important. They hope to publish the first comprehensive resource about isopogons and petrophiles and continue to contribute to the knowledge and preservation of these amazing plants.

Presentation topic:  Filling the gaps: how to preserve our isopogon and petrophiles

Warwick Varley, Leader of Eucalyptus study group

Warwick Varley has been a local of the Illawarra since 1984, after moving to the area to study at the University of Wollongong.

Warwick has been an arborist for the past thirty-four years including, the director of an arboricultural consultancy company for the past twenty years and a TAFE teacher for diploma level for over a decade.

Warwick has been the group study leader of the Eucalyptus Study Group since 2009, and primary areas of interest and research include the Araucaria family and Eucalyptus genus.

Presentation topic: Eucalypts of the Illawarra

Karlo Taliana – Contributor to Banksia Study Group, native plant Enthusiast, banksia lover

Karlo joined the East Hills Group (as it were known then ..now Harbour Georges River Group) of the Australian Plant Society in 2004 after first becoming interested in native plants after a chance visit to the Kings Park Spring Festival in Perth back in the year 2000. He later joined the Banksia Study Group in 2007. He was actively involved becoming President of the East Hills Group from 2009 to 2011 but also held the positions of Secretary, Vice-President and Newsletter Editor for many years before and after this period.

Following on from his initial fascination for WA flora, he has trialled the cultivation of many western species in his south-western Sydney gardens ..after having designed and constructed his own raised garden beds in 2010, resulting in much success.

About 10 years ago, Karlo became the founding member of the popular Banksia Lovers Group page on Facebook ..with membership now having reached around 20,000 members, it has now become the largest FB page devoted to any single Australian native plant genus. The growing interest in Banksia Lovers has seen much flow on effect with the Banksia Study Group membership reaching an all-time high.

More recently, Karlo has joined the Bankstown Bushland Society where he currently holds the position as the Group’s Treasurer. This involvement coincides with his growing enthusiasm for knowledge of the local flora within the Georges River National Park in south-western Sydney.

Presentation topic: Banksias – Eastern cultivars

Peter Olde, Leader of Grevillea study group

Peter joined the SGAP as it was then around 1979 and soon became President of Sutherland Group (3 years) and later President of NSW Region (3 years), subsequently holding the position of Vice-President for many years. He was the Exhibition Manager of Wildflower Shows held at Peakhurst in the 1980s. Peter is currently the President and delegate of Menai Wildflower Group. His tertiary qualifications include BA (Languages), Graduate of Dip. Ed. Uni of Sydney. After leaving university he was called up to national service and served in the Vietnam War as an intelligence operative. He was awarded the Australian Plant Medal in 2015 and the O.A.M. in 2020. He has had considerable experience as a company director, managing a private business for over 30 years after leaving his teaching career after two years. Peter is currently an honorary research scientist with the National Herbarium of New South Wales where he concentrates on the taxonomy of Grevillea, the third largest genus in the Australian Flora.

Presentation topic: Grevilleas for the present and future

Thursday, 15 September, 8.00am to 4.30pm - the future

Costa Georgiadis, lover of nature - AJ Swaby Address

Costa Georgiadis is currently the well-known host of the ABC’s Gardening Australia and winner of a Silver Logie as presenter of that show.

Costa is a lover of nature and above all else, a teacher.

He engages so many people with his own passion for gardening and has spent his professional life enthusiastically educating the rest of us.

A landscape architect and permaculturalist, Costa’s other passion is food.

Costa has a gift for making his important messages engaging and highly entertaining and we look forward to his presentation of this year's AJ Swaby Address.

Presentation topic: What the future holds for Australian native flora

Professor David Lindenmayer

Professor David Lindenmayer is a world-leading expert in forest ecology and resource management, conservation science, and biodiversity conservation. He currently runs 5 large-scale, long-term research programs in south-eastern Australia, primarily associated with developing ways to conserve biodiversity in farmland, wood production forests, plantations, and reserves. He has maintained some of the largest, long-term research programs in Australia, with some exceeding 37 years in duration.

David Lindenmayer has published 1360 scientific articles including 840peer-reviewed papers in international scientific journals. He has also published 48 books, including many award winning textbooks and other seminal books. He is among the world's most productive and most highly-cited scientists, particularly in forest ecology and conservation biology. He has a Google Scholar H-Index of 134. He was included in the 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2015, and 2014 Clarivate Highly Cited Lists (https://clarivate.com/hcr/2017-researchers-list/). In 2018 and 2019, David Lindenmayer was listed among the top 2000 Highly Cited Researchers (h>100) according to Google Scholar Citations public profiles across all disciplines (http://www.webometrics.info/en/node/58). In addition, in 2017 he was listed in the top 50 Australian scientists across all disciplines. David Lindenmayer is a member of an elite group of 0.5% of scientists globally that have published > 10 peer-reviewed scientific articles in international journals annually each year for the past decade. In 2020 and 2021, The Australian newspaper listed the 30 leading Australian scientists, and Lindenmayer was listed as the leading conservation and biodiversity expert in the nation (see https://specialreports.theaustralian.com.au/1540291/24/).

David Lindenmayer held a prestigious Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow from 2013-2018. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (elected 2008), a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America (elected in 2019), and was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2014. His research has been recognised through numerous awards, including the Eureka Science Prize (twice), Whitley Award (10 times), the Serventy Medal for Ornithology, and the Australian Natural History Medallion. In 2018, he was awarded the prestigious Whittaker Medal from the Ecological Society of America.

Presentation topic: Fire, forests, plantations and biodiversity

Dan Ilic, presenter, comedian and filmmaker, change agent

Dan Ilic is one of Australia’s most prolific comedic voices. Dan recently returned home after working in Los Angeles as the Executive Producer of Comedy for pop culture, satire and news network, Fusion. In 2015 he was based in San Francisco as Senior Satire producer for AJ+ English, Al Jazeera’s digital platform for millennials.

Dan has been making television in Australia for over ten years. His credits include Tonightly with Tom Ballard (ABC), Australia’s Funniest Home Videos (Nine), The Olympic Show (NBC), The Ronnie Johns Half Hour (Ten), The Mansion (Comedy), Hungry Beast (ABC), Hamster Wheel (ABC), Can of Worms (Ten), The Feed (SBS2) as well as being a regular on comedy panel shows and news magazine programs.

Dan is also a prolific radio broadcaster having started his radio career on Up For It, FBi Radio’s Breakfast program. Dan has gone on to host programs on Triple J, Radio National, and regularly fills in on Breakfast on the top-rating ABC Radio Sydney. As a passionate supporter of community broadcasting, Dan served on the board of FBi Radio for two years.

Downwind Media, Dan’s branded entertainment company, has been responsible for some of the most talked-about advertising campaigns in Australia. Some of the clients Dan has created work for include, Dick Smith Foods, Vic Roads, Get Up!, Apple, GAME, Mitsubishi Electric, The Australian Olympic Committee, Honda, and The Commonwealth Bank.

As a video journalist for Fairfax, Dan covered the DNC in Denver, the Sundance Film Festival and broke the news to the world of Heath Ledger’s death in New York City.  In 2011 Dan wrote and directed Y2GAY which became a finalist at Tropfest, and since played at over 20 film festivals around the world.

As a comedian, Dan has performed on stage and at festivals all around the world, including New York, Edinburgh and Afghanistan. He is the creator of Sydney sketch club night Comicide, and co-founded the long-running Sydney improv show Full Body Contact No Love Tennis, and the live satirical smash-hit radio program A Rational Fear (FBi Radio / ABC RN).

In 2014 Dan raised over $50,000 through crowdfunding to make A Rational Fear into web series. The digital season was so successful that A Rational Fear partnered with The Guardian Australia, and went on to sell out two shows at the Sydney Opera house and be nominated in that year’s Walkley Awards for journalism.

Dan’s commitment to causing trouble for a good cause reached fever pitch with his Melbourne Fringe Festival show Beaconsfield: A Musical in A Flat Minor, which chronicled the media exploitation of the Beaconsfield mine disaster.

Presentation topic: Causing trouble for a good cause

Australian Plants Society Victoria

Our colleagues from Victoria will be sharing with us their plans for the 2024 Conference, to be held in the beautiful garden state. Speaker to be confirmed. 

Presentation topic: ANPSA Biennial Conference 2024 in Victoria

Australian Plants Society Region Leaders

Presentation topic: Honouring the past, embracing the future - my/our region's vision for what's possible

APS Victoria - Chris Clarke, President

ANPS - Canberra - Tom Jordan