When the Australian Plants Society formed a Warrnambool branch four decades ago, one of its first projects was to transform Swan Reserve.
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And now, 40 years later, the group is still helping to maintain the native garden at the Raglan Parade site.
On Friday, group members celebrated the milestone at a dinner at the Flying Horse Bar and Brewery where the society’s state president Chris Long launched a booklet documenting the past 20 years of the group’s history.
The booklet, called More Knowing, Growing, Showing, follows on from a booklet launched 20 years ago documenting the first 20 years of the society.
On Saturday, the state president was taken on a tour of Swan Reserve by Warrnambool society president Kevin Sparrow. Mr Sparrow, along with his wife Joyce, formed the Friends of Swan Reserve in 2010 in a bid to revive the gardens which had been neglected.
“We maintain the garden at Swan Reserve working in with the Warrnambool City Council. What’s there now is what we’ve developed over the last seven years,” Mr Sparrow said.
“It was the native plant group’s garden initially. Our group’s 40 years old and the garden was the first project when they formed.
“It’s been there a long time but it fell into disrepair 10 years ago and so to resurrect it, a few of us got together and decided to form a new group so we could focus entirely on the garden.
“We wanted to develop a garden that the people of Warrnambool can be proud of. It’s not just for us, it’s for the general public and the visitors to enjoy.”
Mr Sparrow said the role of the society was to promote the growing of Australian native plants in people’s gardens as well as public places.
To do this they hold open gardens and created native plants displays for the Warrnambool show as well as church flower shows and festivals. Flowers used in the displays are often picked from Swan Reserve.
“I think we’ve achieved a lot over the years in encouraging people to grow native plants. There’s a lot more people growing them these days,” Mr Sparrow said.
We’ve achieved a lot over the years in encouraging people to grow native plants.
- president Kevin Sparrow
“A lot of us propagate our own plants so we can grow something really different than what you’d normally get at your local nursery.”
The group meets on the fourth Friday of every month at Mozart Hall from 8pm.
