4 minute read
First Person Meet Michael Elgey Curator Manager, Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan
MICHAEL ELGEY
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What are your key responsibilities? Ensuring that all horticulture displays, turfed areas, woodlands and open green spaces within the Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan are maintained and presented to their best possible standards to allow for positive stakeholder engagement and appreciation. How do we do this? By leading a dynamic and highly skilled team of horticulturists, arborists, greenkeepers, landscapers, nursery operators, volunteers plus lots of planning and collaboration across the organisation.
What first got you interested in plants and how did it lead to a career in the field? I have fond memories of being a very young kid, before I even started school, spending time with my mother in our backyard, where I would climb the lemon tree to pick lemons, collect clover flowers (in an attempt to catch bees), and pick camellias, hibiscus and fuchsia flowers. But I really got into the natural environment later when I would go camping for several days at a time in the Blue Mountains with my father and brothers. I would explore and wonder at many of the plants along the creek lines, while I attempted to catch yabbies and other aquatic animals. These experiences informed my decision when leaving school to somehow work in the outdoors.
Tell us about your career prior to joining the Gardens in your current role. My professional career in horticulture commenced 20 years ago this October when I started a greenkeeping apprenticeship with Northbridge Golf Course. I soon transferred across to work on the grounds of Ryde TAFE (affectionately known as Ryde School of Horticulture). After completing my apprenticeship, I worked for several
years for the Official Secretary for the Governor-General at Admiralty House as a horticulturalist. Then in 2010 I started with the Gardens as an Herbarium Support Officer at the National Herbarium of NSW. Four years later I became Supervisor of Middle Gardens in the Horticulture branch. In 2018 I took a leap of faith and accepted a role as Curator of Rockhampton Botanic Gardens and Kershaw Gardens, smack bang on the Tropic of Capricorn. It was one of the best decisions I’ve made and an experience I will never forget. But when I saw the advertisement for the Curator Manager role at the Australian Botanic Garden in 2021 I knew it was an opportunity I could not let slip by.
What have been some of the highlights of your work? My personal aim at work is to always leave the gardens in a better state and situation every afternoon than they were when I arrived in the morning. I am optimistic that thanks to the dedication my team brings each day, we collectively achieve this. But truly my greatest highlights are seeing my staff grow, develop and progress within their own careers – nothing trumps this.
What is your favourite plant or section in the Garden? What makes it special? In a hard-to-reach gully between the base of Mount Annan and the Banksia Garden there is a large, beautiful remnant specimen of Brachychiton populneus (the Kurrajong) which is my favourite tree in the Garden. In 2011, I was fortunate enough to undertake the
Michael Elgey speaks with local elder Uncle Ivan Wellington at the opening of the National Herbarium of NSW
Plant Science internship that the Science Branch hosted and Foundation & Friends funded. When I undertook this internship, it was one of the first times I had ever visited the Australian Botanic Garden and this is when I fell in love with the genus Brachychiton, so for me this has come a bit of a full circle.
When you are not working, what do you like to do? I like to run, and each morning before work I generally do at least 5 km around the Garden. I also like to read, and I’m particularly drawn to leadership books – the best one I’ve read recently was The Obstacle is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph by Ryan Holiday, which is about embracing obstacles and re-framing them as challenges you need to meet head-on. Being a father of three active kids, however, it’s a rare occurrence when I actually have a spare moment.
Tell us one thing that might surprise people to learn about you. I really enjoy long distance bush walking, and in 2008 I hiked and traversed over the Owen Stanley Ranges from Port Moresby on the southern coast to the remote village of Sanananda on the northern coast of Papua New Guinea (the Kokoda Track forms part of this route). I survived the walk just fine, then got sick on the last day before we flew out after eating some dodgy chicken at the hotel. I’m now spending a bit of time exploring Dharawal National Park near Mount Annan on short walks with my family.
