Keith Jorgensen
E-mail: jorgenkg@picknowl.com.au
Telephone: 07 3341 3933
Chair:
Keith Jorgensen
Vice-Chair:
Susan Martin
Secretary:
John Taylor
Treasurer:
Bob Myers
NMC Representative:
Keith Jorgensen
Newsletter Editor:
Glenn Cooke
Committee:
Elspeth Douglas
Jan Harrington
Nina Wood
Maurice Wilson
Welcome to the Queensland Branch page. Our Branch has members in Brisbane and throughout the state. We conduct numerous events throughout the year to which visitors are welcome, including garden visits, lectures and weekend tours. A recent Branch newsletter containing members' descriptions and photographs of some of our recent events, can be accessed below on this page
The next Queensland Branch Committee meetings will be held at 11am on Friday February 13 and March 13 in room 2D of the State Library of Queensland, Brisbane.
For information and RSVP on all events contact Keith Jorgensen by email on jorgenkg@picknowl.com.au or telephone (07) 3341 3933.
December
Date: Sunday 7 December
Event: Christmas event in the Boonah district
Meet at: 10 am in the parking area of the Boonah Information Centre in Bicentennial Park, on the Boonah-Fassifern Rd, near the roundabout where it joins the Ipswich- Boonah Rd on the northern outskirts of Boonah.
Details: From the Information Centre we will drive in convoy to arrive at 10:30 am at Coochin Coochin homestead, 1370 Boonah-Rathdowney Rd for morning tea and a guided tour by Tim & Jane Bell of their historic garden including 37 trees planted by distinguished guests including the Prince of Wales in 1920 and the Queen Mother in 1958. At 12:30 pm we will drive to Mt Alford Lodge for lunch and a tour of their water-wise garden.
Event charge: members $45, guests $50, morning tea & lunch included.
February
Date: Sunday 15 January
Event: Talk on Queensland Garden History by Dr Jeanie Simm.
Meet at: 2 pm at the Herbarium, Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens
Details: Dr Jeanie Simm is a Senior Lecturer in Landscape Architecture at QUT, a member of the Queensland Branch and a very entertaining speaker. She will speak on various aspects of Queensland's garden history.
Event charge: members $10, guests $15, includes afternoon tea.
Queensland Branch Newsletter October 2008
The Branch has conducted the following events in recent months.
Sunday 18 May 2008
Ten members and friends enjoyed a Guided tour of the Roma St Parklands in inner-city Brisbane conducted by the Curator Bob Dobbs and Volunteer Guide Lorna Rogan. They described the history of the Parkland site to fit in with the National Trust Heritage Week theme of migration history. This land was the site of the main inter-city railway station and marshalling yards in Brisbane. The guides also provided a wealth of information on the plants we saw, on the design features of this very modern garden (opened 2003), and the modifications that are now being made to cope with the water shortage in Brisbane. We also enjoyed morning tea and a chat in the Melange café before the tour, and a shared lunch afterwards.
Saturday 7 to Monday 9 June 2008
Eighteen members and friends made use of the June long weekend to visit Gympie and the Sunshine Coast. We first checked the progress with the redevelopment of the historic zigzag garden in Calton Hill Park, Gympie, then on to a macadamia farm at Wolvi with a delightful subtropical country garden. From there we enjoyed the scenic route through the forested hills to Cooroy for our overnight stay. Next morning we visited the beautiful lakeside Noosa Botanic Gardens, then drove to Tewantin and took the ferry down river to Noosa Heads for lunch at a member’s home with a refurbished private garden. The afternoon was spent at Tinbeerwah in a hilltop garden full of bromeliads and succulents owned by Michael Chapman, an Australian songwriter. After a walk to the top of Mt Tinbeerwah on Monday morning to view the landscape of rolling hills in the Noosa hinterland, we had brunch with a local member, then drove home in the rain.
Saturday 5 July 2008
Twenty one members and friends visited Moreton Island to investigate the history and characteristics of its gardens, including those at Tangalooma Resort. The resort was established near the site of the whaling station after it closed in 1962, and the old flensing deck is now part of the resort’s games area. Because of the high rainfall and the fresh water available in the sand below, a large area and wide range of subtropical plants are being grown and they require a team of eight full-time gardeners in the winter and 12 in the summer. Coconut palms sprinkled through the gardens are now being replaced by local pandanus because of the insurance risk. Further north on the island, we visited the small settlement of Cowan Cowan that has been established with only four-wheel-drive beach access, on the site of a WW2 army camp for the defence of Moreton Bay and Brisbane. Almost every house had a garden of some sort and one, a ferro-concrete dome house was surrounded by a fantasy forest of tall tropical trees decorated with a wide range of fishing floats and other marine items rescued from the beach. The holiday home of members John and Susan Slaughter had a well-established garden, and the house proved an excellent venue for lunch.
Sunday 24 August 2008
Eighteen members and friends attended the AGM of the Qld branch held in the Herbarium Conference Room. Unfortunately the planned guest speaker, Lyndal Plant, was unable to attend at the last minute due to a bout of food poisoning.
Sunday 14 September 2008
A record number of forty four members and friends visited the gardens of two heritage registered properties in Brisbane. Conon, the home of members John & Susan Slaughter is one of the earliest houses in the Lutwyche area, and one of few early 1860s residences to survive in Brisbane. It retains a substantial innercity garden in an English cottage style, but with many subtropical species. Tarranalma at 14 Tarranalma Avenue, Clayfield is the home of John's brother, Richard Slaughter and his partner Adrienne Alexander. It is a large two-storeyed house surrounded by 2.4 metre wide verandahs on both floors that are interrupted by four double-storey projecting bays featuring bow windows.
Sunday 26 October 2008
Twelve members and friends met at the Narda Lagoon in Laidley for morning tea and a quick look at some of the town’s heritage gardens and buildings. From there we drove through Grandchester to the Rosewood Scrub Arboretum where Arnold Rieck, the coordinator from SGAP identified the various local plant species and their significance for aborigines, ornamental gardens, medicine and the timber industry. After a drive through the town of Rosewood with its interesting heritage buildings and gardens, we stopped for lunch at the Walloon Bicentennial Park beside a memorial to the drowning of two sisters while picking waterlilies that Henry Lawson recorded in his poem: Babies of Walloon. However the climax of the day was a visit to the very attractive and calming Nerima Gardens in Ipswich that were built by gardeners from Japan using Japanese garden design principles but mostly native Australian plants.
