LIFETIME HONOURS FOR TWO GUIDING LIGHTS

FOR FOUNDATION & FRIENDS’ TWO NEWEST LIFE MEMBERS, ALL IT TOOK WAS A FEW INSPIRING WORDS TO SPARK DECADES OF DEDICATION. DAVID CARROLL REPORTS.

Back in 1978 Flora Deverall attended a talk by the Royal Botanic Garden’s then Assistant Director of living collections Don Blaxell. Exciting times lay ahead – he told the audience of woman science graduates – because responsibility for the Gardens had just moved to the office of New South Wales Premier Neville Wran, and that meant funding was sure to flow.

“Prior to that the State government never knew where to put the Gardens,” recalls Deverall. “But Wran took a personal interest and so money was finally spent, which led in 1980 to the creation of the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, and ultimately in 1983 to the creation of Friends of the Royal Botanic Garden.”

Blaxell was addressing the group in part because he was eager to recruit volunteer guides to show visitors around the Garden. Deverall was more than qualified, having not long returned to Australia after 15 years abroad, during which she had contributed to research into mycology at Imperial College London and at Forest Products Laboratory in Wisconsin in the US mid-west.

“I was working, however, as a part-time tutor demonstrator at Sydney University’s School of Biological Sciences and also the faculty of Agriculture, and was married with three children, so I had enough on my plate,” she says.

“Then a few years later the Federal government started cutting back funding for universities, impacting part-timers like me. Blaxell’s words stuck with me, so I thought I’d see what was happening. That’s how, in 1981, I became the Garden’s sixth volunteer guide”.

When Friends was formed a couple of years later, Deverall joined up and within a matter of months found herself on the committee. In 1985, she helped organise Friends’ first overseas tour (The Mogul Gardens of India) and by 1986 was starting a three-year term as the organisation’s President.

During her 40 years with the Gardens Deverall has never stopped helping develop the guide program, training countless volunteers and developing special guided walks – efforts that in 2017 were recognised when she was honoured at the NSW Volunteer of the Year Awards. And just last month, not long after being made a Foundation & Friends Life Member, she received an OAM for Service to the Community.

A Rare Find

It was another stimulating botanical presentation that hooked Foundation & Friends Life Member recipient Janet Snodgrass.

“In 1995 I went with my husband to the Mosman Town Hall to hear David Noble describe how a year earlier he had discovered the Wollemi Pine,” she recalls. “I was so impressed that I joined Friends, and within a few months, at the behest of then Vice President, Margot Child, I became a volunteer.”

Snodgrass, a pharmacist by trade, brought to the organisation plenty of hands-on experience as a volunteer, having driven successful fund-raising efforts for local sporting groups and schools. And Child, a friend of her older sister, knew she had found a gem.

Over the next 20-odd years she served as Friends’ first official Volunteer Coordinator, sat on the committee, helped establish the New Year’s Eve Picnic, acted as official photographer at key events, used her pharmacy contacts to launch a range of quality Friends’ merchandise, and even produced the first volunteer caterer’s recipe book. Snodgrass was also integral in establishing the Foundation

& Friends Information Booth.

“I was a volunteer at the Sydney Olympic Games, and I was put through a great training process in order to be part of the team that looked after accreditation for officials and athletes. At the time it was being suggested that we operate information stalls throughout the Garden during the Games, so I advertised and attracted 60 volunteers, who I trained up using the information I was getting from my Olympic program.

“They had a wonderful time, and when it came to an end, I had all these enthusiastic volunteers who wanted to continue, so I persuaded the Gardens’ director to establish a permanent booth at Woolloomooloo Gate. Some of the original volunteers are still with us.”

Snodgrass – who also found time to volunteer for the McGrath Foundation from 2008 to 2018 – says the most rewarding aspect of being a volunteer is the opportunity it presents to meet and have fun with like-minded people.

“And of course it’s a chance to inspire in others an appreciation of the Gardens, not just as a magnificent part of Sydney’s heritage, but also for the great scientific institution it is.”