April 2025
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Wednesday, 2nd April
Luncheons at Graduate House include welcome drinks, a two course meal with wine and tea and cofffee.
plants through time”
On Wednesday, 5th March, we welcomed back our members at Graduate House for the first luncheon of 2025 with speaker Alison Vaughan, who manages the collection of 1.5 million botanical specimens of the National Herbarium of Victoria.
Today I am going to talk to you about the ways in which herbarium specimens act as botanical time capsules, that is how I like to think of them, like a snapshot of the world’s biodiversity through time. I will also talk about some of the many, many people that have contributed to the Herbarium’s collection because even though you can find that the collection is impersonal, it is the work of people, people are part of it and through their contribution to the collection those people contribute to our understanding of the plants, algae and fungi that sustain and enrich our lives.
The first part of my talk will be about a bit of the role of the Herbarium’s conservation work and the ways that herbarium specimens can help us understand past, present and future biodiversity, then about the global collection we have. I also want to talk about one of the ways the specimens can reveal the human story and how we as curators of the collection can be really connected to people through time through working the collection.
That said, we will start at the beginning. A herbarium is a collection of preserved plants, algae and fungi specimens, most of the sea plants are pressed and dried, then mounted
onto a cardboard about A3 size. We do also have specimens preserved in ethanol, to preserve its tridimensional shape, we have bulky specimens like fruit and lichens and fungi that we store in packets because we would not be able to recognise them otherwise.
The herbarium that we have here in Melbourne, the National Herbarium of Victoria, was established by Ferdinand Mueller in 1853, it is the first herbarium in Australia. From the original herbarium building, and because as herbariums we keep collecting and keep getting bigger, which is very inconvenient, we went to the art deco building built in 1934, that was a centenary gift to the State by Macpherson Robertson. That building is well and is now housed in this circular extension, but now we have outgrown this building as well and the Herbarium is on an ongoing campaign for advocating for funds for a new herbarium that has been going for about 18 years.
The Herbarium is home to Victoria State Botanical collection which we care for, it made it to the Royal Botanic Gardens in 1991
and it comprises an extensive library and archives including the collection of original botanical artwork and 1.500.000 preserved plants, algae and fungi specimens. We don’t know how many there are because a lot of them aren’t catalogued yet.
So even though we are less well known that the beautiful Botanical Garden, the Herbarium is fundamental. Our systems rely on plants, algae and fungi and if we want our lives to continue to be sustained and enriched by them, we have to understand them and the herbarium is the beacon of research that allows us to do that.
Each one of those 1.5 million specimens is a permanent record of the distance of an organism at a particular time, so that is why we call them biological time capsules.Together all of the specimens create a powerful picture of past and present biodiversity and as the catalogue grows, that picture of biodiversity becomes clearer.
Every new specimen coming into the collection gives us more information to help us protect that species in the future. The collecting process is very lotic and it hasn’t changed much. So, what we do is collect the specimen, put it between two sheets of newspaper, fold it in cardboard and tie it really tight.
Like any collection whether it’s the museum, archives, library, art gallery, we care for it in order to prolong its useful life and the Herbarium is pretty much a working collection, it is one that is used everyday. To care for it we do it in a lot of different ways. First, with that amount of specimens, we make sure to provide the support that they need handled by botanists, we host visiting researchers to examine the specimens, we catalogue the specimens so the collecting information can be used for research, we send specimens on loan to researchers at other herbariums around the world and we photograph the specimens to provide a digital proxy that can facilitate research. On this last point we have only been able to photograph about 2% of the collection so there’s still a lot of work to do there.
But the most fundamental way that we enhance the collection is by continue collecting, so in order to keep the collection up to date, to keep what should be a useful picture of biodiversity through time, we want to avoid having any gaps in the collection in terms of time, geography or species and so we do need to keep collecting. By covering those great periods of time, distribution and coverage of the species, we monitor changes to a species through time and notice any environmental change.
In order to carry on with our work, we need to know what we’re talking about and share a language, agreed names for the plants. At the most fundamental level of research herbariums specimens need to be described, named and classificated.
The specimen here is the language and we need to agree on those names to talk about the life around us and once we have those names we can create a shared imprint of the botanical life at different scales, safe in the knowledge that we’re talking about the same thing. That’s relevant because it’s estimated that every plant in Australia actually has four names, so we need to reconcile those to be able to communicate.
Every time a species is described, its name is permanently attached to the specimen so it can be registered and recognizable all over the world.
Nevertheless, it would not be handy if botanical names never change, it can be frustrating too but like any science and knowledge improves, the understanding of the boundaries and relationship between species changes, evolves and everytime it does, we need to consult the specimen. So just as letters, documents and manuscripts are the primary sources for a historian, herbarium specimens are the primary source for a botanist.
There is an Acacia that was only described in 2020 by Neville Walsh, botanist for the Herbarium. Collected in 2019, it has an interesting story, it was growing in the conservation property of a couple in far east
Gippsland, they couldn’t identify it, sent a sample into the herbarium and Neville immediately recognised it was a not described species of Acacia, traveled there with some colleagues and collected it in October of 2019, at that time there were 18 plants, then after the black summer bushfire I think there are 4 plants left. That was a really timely find.
So what that shows us is that the ongoing collecting and research is not only related to the plants that we know, it also reveals new ones from time to time.
I want to acknowledge that we are strictly talking about the western finds and that sits on a much older, equally valid way of knowing, so although this plant here has been identified and was given a name that is probably from 1918, it was already known and had a name that was used by members of a first nation for thousands of years.
Cataloguing that collection is a core task for us, we have been doing it for over thirty years, starting in 1991 and we completed just over two thirds of the collection but it continues to grow and database it is an ongoing work.
The 1.000.000th specimen was entered into the database in July 2021 and Rita Macheda, gained the honour of introducing it. She began working at the herbarium in 2000 and she has had nine different roles since, most of which have involved cataloguing the collection and she’s also catalogued over 100.000 specimens, so it was very fitting that she should have the honour.
By cataloguing that collection we create a really powerful and available research database, our specimen data is shared with other Australasian herbariums, so within this shared research our collected data is merged with other institutions to invigorate and make it even more powerful.
The specimens are used in many different ways, for example in the work of the science team at the garden, they have done a lot of bushfire recovery work in recent years and they are going to keep working now after the Grampians fire.
The Herbarium’s collection is absolutely critical in this cases because we can check on particularly endangered species that have been affected, knowing that the collection provides the record that allows us to map species to know where something grew so we can go back and see if it is still there. The specimens also support our conservation seedbank and conservation storebank, collecting seeds and pods from Victoria’s most threatened species that we hold in long term preservation to try and protect them against extinction basically, from them we can regenerate.
Even though the focus of our work is the plants, algae and fungi here in Victoria, the scope of the collection and the impact of our work is global. Plant evolution and plant distribution don’t pay any attention to political boundaries and we need to understand Australian flora and Victorian flora in a global context. We have been really fortunate at the Botanic Garden to have an incredible collection of preserved plants, algae and fungi, it is an absolutely remarkable collection.
More than half the specimens in the global collection came to us from the personal collection of Otto Wilhelm Sonder, a German botanist and chemist, colleague and friend of Ferdinand Mueller, and through his life he collected an incredible collection of specimens from all around the globe, not only collected by him, a lot of them were purchased from other people, you could make a decent living from collecting and selling specimens back in the day.
When Sonder wanted to sell his collection Mueller spent two decades convincing the Government to purchase it and in 1883 it came to the National Herbarium. Mueller described it as the richest of all current herbariums in existence and looking at it we don’t think that was a hyperbole but a pretty sound claim.
As we undertake the work of taking care of that collection we are getting a better understanding of working the collection. Sonder’s herbarium contains plant specimens from the earliest European explorations in America and Africa and has specimens dating back to the 1500s, one of the oldests specimens in the Herbarium. We have got specimens collected from Livingston’s expedition to the Zambezi River and specimens collected by Charles Darwin. The Sonder’s collection accounts for one fifth of the collection. About 30,000 passionate people who collected plants through the decades have contributed to the Herbarium and are united, I think, through time by that shared interest, shared love of plants, shared curiosity about the world around them and I’m going to tell you just about a few of them now.
The first director of the botanic garden and botanist, Ferdinand Mueller, was an essential figure in 19th century Australian botany and he saw and researched material from all over the country. Between 1836 and 1880 he published in newspapers inviting those who may be interested to contribute plant specimens to the Herbarium.
It led to a huge influx of specimens from hundreds of enthusiastic people. Mueller was not discriminating in who contributed, there was research done with a colleague on identifying women in that network of collectants, we found 225, which is about 12% of the network. Kew Gardens in the UK, at the same time, had only about 4% of their collection made by women. I’d say he was a feminist but that may be opportunist, it is interesting though at the same time to identify and be able to look back and see that women were contributing to botany.
Mary Bate is one of my favorites, one of Mueller’s favorites too. She started collecting at age 25. Over five years, she collected about 350 specimens and she put together a really comprehensive account of the flora around where she lived. She was, one of the 225 women who found connection to nature but also into society through this work. There’s a real social connection there to have been corresponding with Mueller, and feel like you’re part of that science world.
These connections were fueled by Mueller’s letters, so it is thought that in his lifetime he wrote around 100,000, we have got about 15,000 of them at the Garden and they are an extraordinary insight into people’s lives and the history of how the collection came together. He wrote to Mary Bate, saying “you are one of the very few women in Australia who have a real taste for botany”.
Another key figure in the history of the Herbarium who understood the power of plants to connect people and the power of encouraging people to get good scientific outcomes was former Herbarium Director Jim Willis. He started as a herbarium assistant in 1939. Jim Willis was described as being unfailingly willing to give botanical information to those who aren’t, and proved to be an inspiration to many. So he, like Miller, made and maintained these connection of naturalists throughout the country.
One collector whose contributions were nurtured was Eileen Ramsey and if I had to pick a favorite collector, it would be her. So she lived in a soldier settlement in Mildura. And in 1949, when she was 52, she started collecting plants. Over the next 10 years, she put together this collection of a thousand plants, and we’ve got her side of the correspondence that is absolutely a joy to read.
She wrote to Jim “you can’t imagine how long, how long to be just independent enough to follow my true desire, botany and writing appeared”. Developing those relationships
between herbarium staff and enthusiastic naturalists is vital. Eileen’s collection, although it’s not that large in terms of a personal herbarium, is very valuable. She was collecting at a time of great agricultural expansion, she recognized that, she wanted to document that and a lot of what she collected is now rare or extinct.
We can’t possibly talk about contributions to the herbarium without mentioning Alexander Beauglehole. He was a farmer in South Victoria, lived down in Portland, and he took an intent interest in the broader estate. He began studying the local plants as a child and it is said that he could recognize 60 species of orchids before age 12.
I don’t think there’s a single dirt track in the state that he didn’t collect on. It’s really comprehensive. He made important contributions and wrote papers about bees, wasps and fossils, he’s an absolute brilliant contributor to science. He collected about 90,000 specimens and 70,000 are at the Herbarium. So he’s collected about almost 18% of the Victorian collection.
And so all of the collectors - I think I’ve talked to you about five of them of the 30,000 - but all of them are united through time by their passion, which is hands together the entire collection. By the Australian and global component, is an extraordinary scientific resource for botanical science, but it’s also a testament to human endeavor. The specimens not only document the presence of a plant at a particular place in time, they also just document the determination and curiosity of the people who collected them and the people who work with them. Every specimen in the collection has a story.
So all of this protective work and the curation work we do form part of these collaborations. We handle specimens that were so carefully collected by other people, and read and interpret their handwriting, which feels really intimate and the people who work with the collection, whether they’re researchers, curators or others leave their trace on the specimens as well, which makes that collaboration through time all the more tangible.
So just to finish up, the connection that we as curators feel to these people is very real. We imagine the people in their life, what they were doing when they collected specimens. Sometimes we curse them for their handwriting, but mostly we marvel at their passion and their dedication to documenting biodiversity. Like I said, it’s a real honor to add to their work, to feel connected to it. And I just want to finish by acknowledging that so much of the work of the Herbarium is possible, not only thanks to our volunteers, but also because of the generous support of groups and many individuals who, through their support, leave their trace on the collection as well. Thank you very much. v
*All images used in this article belong to Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria
Luncheons at Graduate House include welcome drinks, a two course meal with wine and tea and co fee.
On Tuesday 4th and Friday 7th of March, the Graduate Student Association from Graduate House participated in the Grad Groups Students Expo organised by the Graduate Student Association from the University of Melbourne.
The group from Graduate House represented the Union and talked to the interested students about the many benefits of being part of the Graduate Union as well as the activities that are organised here, such as the Twilight Lectures and the Monthly Luncheons.
Graduate House was also interesting for many students as a place for networking, as there’s a number of scholars and higher level students that are experts in their fields and quite interesting to spend time with.
All in all Graduate House came out as a great place to live and share with other students and we certainly hope to see more of them here in the future.
Past Chair of Councils Vincent J Mirabelli, Rhys Watson and David Sparks with PastCouncil member Muan Lim, meeting with President Hon Diana Bryant KC, Chair of Council Natalie Gray, Vice-Chair of Council Martin Comte OAM, Lawry Grima and General Manager to discuss the future Stage 1 development of Graduate House.
On the afternoon of the 28th of February, Graduate House held a ceremony to award and acknowledge the incredible work of the winner and semi-finalists of the lapel pin competition that started in 2024: Ingrid Tseng, Sue Buchanan, Michelle Stewart and Juliette Wehling Wrathall, all students of RMIT’s Gold and Silversmithing programs at the honours and postgraduate levels.
The ceremony took place at the Taylor Room in Graduate House, where members of the Council and Committees invited the winner and semi-finalists to afternoon cocktails to thank them for their participation, effort and creativity.
The competition organised by the Council was thought as an opportunity to honour the centenary history of The Graduate Union and
also to herald the future of our long-standing organisation. As stated during the ceremony lead by the Chairperson of Council, Natalie Gray, “we have to take a look not only at our foundation in 1911, but also to the future and who we want to be as the Graduate Union”.
She also expressed her gratitude for the participants’ involvement in this creative endeavour and their engagement of their particular stories as individuals in this artistic process.
The Vice-Chairperson of Council and CoChair of Advancement Subcommittee, Martin Comte OAM, dedicated some words of appreciation to the students and their task, particularly highlighting how joyous it was to work with them.
Among the amazing work delivered by the competitors, that of Ingrid Tseng was chosen to represent what the Graduate Union stands for. Ingrid was inspired by the homely spirit that surrounds Graduate Union and the sharing of knowledge and camaraderie between the members.
Ingrid’s design includes two main elements: the first one is a graduate hat that “indicates that the union is renowned as the preeminent Australian membership association of graduates of universities around the world”. The second element is a pin point, the usual representation used in digital maps to indicate a destination, as Ingrid explains in her own words “I wanted the pin in part to represent a destination and say welcome, you’re back home”.
As Graduate House we congralutate Ingrid for her succes as well as Sue, Michelle and Juliette for their creativity when developing their versions of the pin. We hope that this is the first of many opportunities in which students can use their abilities in creative fields when working with our community.
The pin is expected to be available for members to purchase around mid year of the present 2025.
Members of Council, Committees and competition participants
As it is tradition on the third Wednesday of the month, the Women’s Forum met on 19 February 2025, this time to discuss the topic of ‘How do we handle protests?’ This is the summary of that reunion as given by members Maxine Cooper and Elizabeth Carvossso:
Four of us were present: Elizabeth Carvosso, Fiona McConnell, Wazila Khan, and Maxine Cooper. There were three apologies for various reasons, from Margaret Myers, Sue Colvin, and Emilia Cross. We usually have about 6 to 8 women present for these discussions.
We began the discussion with one of us talking about the protests they had attended when they were university students and took part in a protest to stop the execution of Ronald Ryan, who was a prisoner at Pentridge Prison and was the last prisoner to be executed in Victoria. Other protests some of us were involved with over time were gender equity and fair and equal pay disputes, economic and political disputes, and war and peace issues.
We then talked about the current protests in Melbourne, what we think about them, and how they have affected us in complex and diverse ways. For example, there are the Gaza war protests, and previously, protestors disrupted the Land Forces Defence exposition that was held in Melbourne. Obviously, we each have different political, social, and economic backgrounds and beliefs, and so the discussions are usually quite complex and stimulating for us
to understand the different ways we approach the complexities of everyday life.
Sometimes, we understand that protests can help us learn more about a particular topic that is upsetting some people. We also understand that there are costs to many of us because we can’t access trams and the streets we need to use to get to events we want to attend.
We raise more questions to consider. For example, how do these protests affect local shopkeepers? Do the general population really understand the reasons for these protests? Do protests help us learn about the problems facing most of us in our current everyday lives? There seem to be often faults on both sides of our arguments about why protests are held. We certainly appreciate the reasons for some protests, but we also do not like having to change our plans if we are badly affected by actions that affect us personally. We realise most topics are not simply black-and-white issues. We realise there are many shades of grey, but we want to look for more exciting colours and times.
The Women’s Forum usually follows the format of each person speaking for 10 minutes without interruptions. After each person has had the time to present their ideas on the topic, we have a general discussion, asking questions and explaining details as appropriate.
Written by Maxine Cooper and Elizabeth Carvosso.
On the 11th of March 2025, St. Hilda’s college held a luncheon on behalf of women’s day. The keynote speech was delivered by Dr. Danielle McMullen, the current president of the Australian Medical Association (AMA), and the 3rd woman to hold this position. Dr. McMullen was a very fitting speaker, as she has been in advocacy since her time as a student representative for her residential college around 20 years ago. The luncheon was attended by alumni all the way from the 1960s classes and current students.
Dr. McMullen acknowledged how the leadership she witnessed in the Sisters of Change at St. Vincent’s Hospital during her time as a student impacted her own journey in advocating for women’s health, including reproductive rights and maternal healthcare. She admitted that the road to advocacy is as rewarding as it is long and arduous. “Some days you’ll go 3 steps forward, and 5 steps back.” But the wins make it worth the effort. The work she had been building towards paid off when the NSW Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill passed in 2019, and it was no longer a crime to terminate the pregnancy. This was a win across the board, but especially for young women. Dr. McMullen often engaged with young adults who did not have the financial stability and time to raise a child whilst undertaking their tertiary education.
Another win followed this year, when the government increased the Medicare rebate from 77 dollars to 300 dollars for non-reversible long term contraceptive medication. At present, Dr. McCullen is hoping to work towards a day when she can insert an IUD without any out of pocket charges.
This multi-talented, hard-working woman ended her keynote by encouraging all the women in the room to keep working towards a better future. “If we want a future where every woman and girls can thrive, we have to keep fighting.”
Wednesday 16 April - What happens when political parties appear to change policies for an election?
Wednesday 21 May - Why is civics not being taught much in the current school system?
Wednesday 18 June - Political and economic interference in the Arts in Australia.
Wednesday 16 July - Elder discrimination.
Wednesday 20 August - Politics of healthcare.
Nestled in the vibrant city centre of Melbourne, on Melbourne Place, close to a number of restaurants, pubs and entertainment venues, this members only club offers a wide range of activities and events venues such as the Members Bar, the Dining Room, the Presidents Room, the Billiards Room and other private spaces.
Founded in 1865, the Kelvin Club was originally born as the Fitzroy Bowling Club located on Victoria Parade, where it offered its members bowling greens and a space for leisure. Almost a hundred year later and after various moves, the club found its current home at 14-30 Melbourne Place in 1946, where it keeps alive the spirit of camaraderie that the founders envisioned.
The club offers a sophisticated a la carte dining experience with an arrange of food from light snacks to hearty meals, focusing on locally sourced ingredients and a season changing selection of specials. Dinner can be enjoyed in the ballroom, the strategy room, down stairs bar and lounge area.
Several other clubs reunite at the Kelvin Club premises to enjoy the lively ambiance of the place: the Snooker Club meeting every Tuesday evening, the Fly-Fishing Group (VFFA) meeting monthly at the club and arranging fishing events in Victoria, interstate and abroad, the Book Club that reunites every second Tuesday of the month, the Bridge Club, the Clay Target Shooters Group, the Bottle Club.
Even though The Club doesn’t offer accommodation in their premises, they have an associated discount at The Melbourne Place Hotel, a fabulous place just adjacent to the clubs’ location.
As reciprocal clubs, the Kelvin Club and Graduate Union share the benefits of their memberships, meaning that any member of Graduate House is more than welcome at the Kelvin Club for dinner, drinks, events or joining the many clubs that the Club hosts and viceversa. For regular updates on functions and events please check kelvinclub.com
If you’re planning on visiting the Kelvin, please don’t forget to bring your Graduate Union membership card and present it to the firendly staff as a courtsey on your first visit.
14-30 Melboune Place, Melbourne, Victoria. (03) 9654 5711 manager@kelvinclub.com
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