Sue Cunningham is the Community Conservation Officer with Blue Mountains City Council and part of Council’s Healthy Waterways Team. Sue’s background in water monitoring, bush regeneration and community engagement led her to what some have described as the “best job ever” – providing advice and support to landholders interested in restoring and protecting native habitat on their property.

The weeds are out, now what?

Sue’s presentation will provide guidance to landholders who have removed the weeds and want to know what native plants can take their place.

Jill Dark is a local leader in the Blue Mountains known for gifting Varuna, The National Writers' House to the Australian public in 1989 with her late husband, Mick Dark. A keen birder, botanist, conservationist and mentor, Jill has been a key member of the Blue Mountains Conservation Society, the Australian Plant Society and Blue Mountains Bushcare. She is a co-author of three Native Plants of the Upper Blue Mountains books, she worked with WIRES and Blue Mountains Bird Observers for many years, and she regularly leads nature and bird walks in the local area.

Gardening for the birds

Jill will be looking at the interaction of native birds in native gardens.

Paul Gadsby is a passionate botanist and educator with over 25 years of experience studying Australia’s native flora. Paul is also the author of several upcoming native plant identification books. He regularly runs engaging botany workshops, including sessions focused on Eucalypt identification and vegetation community classification.

What nature grew on your land and how to fit a gum in the garden

Paul will guide us in how to find out what nature grew at your place before it became a residential block and how eucalypts can be grown in gardens in their mallee form.

Richard Johnstone worked at Mt Annan Botanic Garden for thirty years,  retiring in 2017. For the first fourteen of those years he was a Plant Records Officer  dealing with the records of the living collection. For the last sixteen, Richard’s role was Seed Bank Officer, including the period when Plantbank was established. In 2004, Mt Annan entered an agreement with the Millennium Seed Bank in the UK (the seed bank of Royal Botanic Gardens,  Kew) to supply them with 1500 species of native Australian plant seeds over a period of six years, new to their collection.  Richard now volunteers at Blue Mountains Wildplant Rescue Service.

Collecting Native Seed 101

Richard is condensing a training course that usually takes weeks into a few short minutes. Prepare to take notes.

David King, also known as Dingo Darbo is a proud Gundungurra Man, a member of the Gundungurra Aboriginal Heritage Association Incorporated, and a Gully Traditional Owner. David is a passionate advocate for Indigenous culture, land care, and community leadership. As a long-time Bushcarer, Landcarer, and Swampcarer in the Blue Mountains, he’s recieved several awards, including the BMCC NAIDOC Recognition Award, Hard Yakka, Bushcare Legend, and the NSW Indigenous Land Management Awards through for work with Garguree Swampcare.

Welcome to Country

Peter is the current President of the Blue Mountains branch of Australian Plant Society. A Blue Mountains resident for over 40 years, Peter has been a native plant enthusiast since childhood. For a large part of his career, Peter worked in landscape management and horticulture as well as in bush regeneration in Western Sydney and the Blue Mountains. Peter’s last job was at TAFE as a teacher specialising in land management, bush regeneration and horticulture, specifically native plants.

The Transitional Garden

Peter will look at how to incorporate native plants into established gardens and considerations for introducing natives according to your location.

Kath Temple has worked in horticulture and landscape design for 44 years in local government then teaching at TAFE for 34 years. Kath taught in all areas of horticulture and specialised in teaching landscape design. Kath was involved in the bushfire recovery program after the 2013 fires assisting people with their gardens. She has a passion for horticultural therapy and still works in this area on a casual basis. 

Designing a native garden and managing fire risk

Liam Ramage studied geology at Macquarie University and has vast interest in all areas of natural sciences. He works in bush regeneration and threatened species management, volunteers at the Blue Mountains Conservation Society's native plant nursery and is the Society’s Threatened Species Officer.

The Importance of Soil in Native Gardening

Soil and nutrients are an important part of success in native gardening. The native flora of the Blue Mountains are highly adapted to acidic infertile sandy soils, so keeping the soils of your garden as close to natural and undisturbed as possible will have the best outcome. There are also ways to deal with gardens that have changed soils from introduced materials/plants and fertilizer. There are some exceptions to this depending on the location, such as basalt, shale and granite derived soils.