Interview Recording
Part one (1 hour 56 minutes)
Part two (27 minutes)
Interview Transcript
Maria Hitchcock OAM interviewed on 6 October 2025 by Elizabeth Chappell
Synopsis
Maria Hitchcock OAM describes how her family background and teaching experience in technical and secondary education led her to a passion for Australian native plants. She became inaugural President of her local Society for Growing Australian Plants, as it was then called, and leader of the Correa Study Group for the Society. This led to establishing a national collection of correas, running an online nursery for Australian plants and having her garden, Fangorn, in Armidale, listed as a private botanic garden. Maria has published several books on the cultivation and propagation of Australian native plants. She was instrumental in having wattle gazetted as Australia’s national floral emblem and for gazettal of National Wattle Day.