Monday, 12 May 2025
Government House Sydney
Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC

Bujari Gamarruwa

Diyn Babana, Gamarada Gadigal Ngura

In greeting you in the language of the Gadigal, Traditional Owners of the land on which the Royal Botanic Garden and Government House stands, I pay my respects to Gadigal Elders, and Elders of all lands^[1] of the Botanic Gardens of Sydney. I acknowledge their care, knowledge and custodianship of the living Country on which the Gardens are based and of this land on which we gather this morning.

It is wonderful to welcome you to Government House this Sydney morning, shrouded in an urban mist that brings a sense of Mt Tomah into the room as we gather to celebrate your work as members and volunteers of the Botanic Gardens of Sydney and Foundation & Friends of the Botanic Gardens, of which I am Patron.

As neighbours, our relationship strictly started at the commencement of the colony with Governor Arthur Phillip clearing the land around Farm Cove to establish a European farm, unsuccessfully so, lacking an understanding of this ancient land. 

However, it was Governor Macquarie who saw its real potential and the land which had been marked out as the ‘Governor’s domain’ officially became the Botanical Gardens in 1816,^[2] a connection memorialised on the eastern boundary of the Gardens as Mrs Macquarie’s Road leads down to Mrs Macquarie’s chair on the headland as it juts out into the harbour.    

Today, the work of Australia’s oldest cultural and scientific institution continues,^[3] working across the areas of science, horticulture, and education. This is supported by your work, the members and volunteers of the Foundation and Friends with your plant nursery growing and selling plants from the Gardens’ living collection, testing the viability of the historic seed collections at PlantBank,^[4]  ensuring that interpretative signage is kept clean and in good condition at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. and your generous support of events.  

In this regard, the numbers speak for themselves:

In 2024, 550 volunteers gave 43,110 hours of valuable time to support the Gardens operations - the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, The Domain, Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan, Blue Mountains Botanic Garden Mount Tomah, and the nation’s premier botanical research organisation – the Australian Institute of Botanical Science.   

Also in 2024, two new Trust volunteer programs commenced, and we take this opportunity to thank long-serving Trust volunteers: Flora Deverall, Rosemary Roberts, Geoff Richards and Helen Williams.

The ‘in-kind’ value of this volunteering is estimated at over one and three quarter million dollars. What this figure doesn’t adequately capture is priceless - your knowledge, expertise, enthusiasm, dedication and inspiration.

The extent of your work goes unnoticed by many - but that couldn’t be said of your support of the blockbuster horticultural event of the century – as 1.3-1.7  million people from across the world and some 28,000 visitors from across Australia lined up from early in the morning to late at night, waiting for that moment when ‘Putricia’ unfolded her exquisite foliage and bloomed in all her beauty and otherwise made her presence felt.   

Through the expert work of the scientists at the Gardens, this endangered specimen from Indonesia had captured the imagination as nothing before had in the history of the Gardens.  Perhaps not as well-known is the extent of collaboration amongst Botanical Gardens across the world in protecting endangered species such as the titan arum or Bunga Bangkai. 

And it was during that time that the essentiality of your role as volunteers came to the fore, because the success of Putricia’s unfolding to the public would not have been possible without your daily assistance, shepherding the ever-growing queues as they snaked well out onto Art Gallery Road. A combined total of 620 hours labour to this installation was contributed by both the Botanic Gardens Sydney and Foundation & Friends.

Thanks to the immense interest in Putricia, the Gardens were able to raise over $130,000 in donations, to support the conservation and care of Putricia and other rare, endangered species into the future.

It is also rewarding to know that your work is being recognised.  Last year, Botanic Gardens of Sydney volunteer guide Lynne Cusack was Senior Volunteer of the Year for Sydney North and Blue Mountains Botanic Garden volunteer guides were as Volunteer Team of the Year for the Blue Mountains region.

A number of the Foundation & Friends’ dedicated and long-serving volunteers have retired or ‘stepped back’ and we pay tribute to and thank Carole Griesser, Anne Rasmussen, Peter Van Rockel, Raoul de Ferranti, Margaret Hanks and Juvie Ormonde.

To Simon Duffy AM, Chief Executive and Professor Brett Summerell, Chief Scientist & Director Science, Education and Conservation, to program staff, and Volunteer Guides past and present, and all volunteers:

Thank you for assuring the promotion, protection and education of our unique botanical heritage and biodiversity and for ensuring that our national treasures are places of beauty and tranquillity for all. 

[1] Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan – Dharawal Country, where the Australian Institute of Botanical Science is based; Blue Mountains Botanic Garden Mt Tomah – Dharug Country

[2] 13 June 1816 is ‘traditionally observed as the foundation day of the Garden’: Foreword, The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, RBG and Domain Trust, 2015

[3] https://www.botanicgardens.org.au/about-us#

[4] Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan