Native Plants for NSW - January/February 2022

A new year - hope and challenge

Dear {Contact_First_Name}, 

Welcome to 2022. I hope you were able to enjoy a break over the festive season, catching up with family and friends. I think the mantra is 'living with' Covid, rather than waiting until it's over! 

I recently spent a couple of days in the Blue Mountains, taking photos for promo of the Biennial Conference tour. The image above is The Drift, in the Gardens of Stone. 

Heather Miles, President

Highlights: 

• Events and activities
• Conservation - have your say - a simple poll
• Can you help?
• District Group highlights of 2021
• Sad to lose them, but what contributions they made

Events and activities

Our most popular posts to our Instagram site in 2021

Gatherings

• Saturday 12 March – Quarterly gathering hosted by Menai Group at Illawong with Chris Gambian from the Nature Conservation Council on how we can influence the conservation of native plants. Details here.
• Saturday 21 May – Quarterly gathering and AGM hosted by Parramatta and Hills Group at Cherrybrook, with Peter Olde on Grevilleas for pots and small gardens. More here.

Trip to Central West, 1 - 4 April

See 6 farms whose owners are dedicated to using native plants to regenerate their land. This trip is now full, but we have created a waiting list, so please register if you'd like to be kept abreast of spots opening up.

ANPSA Biennial Conference

10 September to 17 September

Tickets will be going on sale soon for the Biennial Australian Flora Conference in Kiama.

While the full program is not yet announced, details of several add on tours are now available, including video previews of the tour itineraries and flora to be seen.

You can also join the waitlist to stay up-to-date as soon as tickets go on sale in March.

Please reach out to anyone in the conference team if you have any questions or something to contribute: office@austplants.com.au

Conservation - have your say

Many members of APS NSW want us to increase our focus on conserving and protecting native plants and their habitats. However, we'd like your feedback on what that focus should be. 

Please take 5 mins to complete this simple poll to help us refine our thinking. You have to be logged in to answer the questions. If you need help to login, please contact me at president@austplants.com.au or check these instructions. 

Click the button to go to the survey. Thanks for your ideas.

Can you help?

Nearly everything required to keep us operating is done by volunteers. We'd really appreciate your help! 

• Producing this eNewsletter. We are seeking a small team of writers and website managers to put this together each month. Creative? Like writing stories? Want to add value to our communications with members? We'd love to talk with you. 
• Website manager or co-manager. A vital role to keep marketing ourselves to the outside world. Help needed to optimise and grow our readership from the current 12k visits per month. 
• Social media. Love engaging with others about plants? Enjoy taking photos and posting?  We'd love your help with Facebook and Instagram, as well as YouTube. 
• Secretary to the board. An important role which means working with the President (bad luck!) on board papers, preparing the annual report and more. If you've ever wanted to know how an organisation operates, this could be for you. You don't need to be a board member to do this job.
• And there's more!!!

District Group highlights of 2021

Each year, we invite district groups to share their highlights and challenges of the previous year. These are reported in the Annual Report, available in April. 

Here are the brief excerpts of reports received at the time of writing. More next month. 

Armidale and Districts

Highlights were our working bees in the native plant section of the Armidale Bicentennial Arboretum and visits to members’ gardens. Two garden visits in April took place despite the heavy rain. 

Central Coast

This year we have a new activity. One of our members, Diane Warman, is a practicing botanist and she was kind enough to undertake basic bush botany sessions in the field with a group of members. 

Harbour Georges River

East Hills Group adopted a new name – Harbour Georges River – and sketched out a catchment area for our group to better reflect the distribution of our current members. We reached out to APS NSW members who lived within that catchment area and were not affiliated with a particular group. 

Hunter Valley

A significant event was to sponsor the  Flora of the Hunter Region Exhibition at Brough House in Maitland. This was a joint exhibition of the Maitland Regional Museum, Newcastle Museum and The National Trust. 

Macarthur

Socialising was the order of the day in March as we indulged in scones, jam and cream at the 102 café in the grounds of the University of Sydney  (Veterinary section). David and Malle Eden invited us to their property at Oakdale for a meeting and to view the regrowth of the bush after the 2020 bushfires.

Newcastle

We managed to maintain a full calendar of excellent talks (many via zoom). We took the opportunity to use guest speakers from further afield who would not normally be able to attend in-person. We also held another successful plant sale.

North Shore

We carried out some much-needed improvements to our shadehouse: the entry path was gravelled and the shadecloth roof and walls were replaced. Our scholarship winner was Harriet Simpson-Southward and her topic is: ‘Effects of climate change on resilience of fire prone eucalypt communities’.

Parramatta and Hills

The highlights of this year were the bushwalk in October along the Cranston’s Road firetrail at Dural and the final members’ meeting in November where Malcolm Johnson gave an illustrated talk about his canoe trip down Cattai Creek from Castle Hill to the Hawkesbury River.

Southern Highlands

Highlights include garden visits, a propagation workshop including rare and endangered acacias, a bush walk to Carrington Falls and lunch in Moreton National Park. Two members continue to maintain several large planter boxes outside Coles-Bowral.

Southern Tablelands

Our walk in early November was the best outing, as we went to the top of Ettrema Gorge to see the recovery from the fires in early January 2020. The rain had made a huge impression on the flora with Damperia stricta forming a carpet of blue and Actinotus helianthi bursting forth.

Sad news - but such inspiring lives they led

A number of our life members have passed away recently - Gordon Brooks and Kyrill Taylor. In addition some long term members have also passed away, being Dot Gallagher and Margaret and Graham Walters. Members have written moving tributes to them. All have made huge contributions and enriched the lives of those around them. See each tribute by clicking the name. 

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