Internship Program 2008

The National Herbarium of New South Wales hosted the second Internship Program over 7 weeks during January and February. Funding of $14,000 to run the program is from the Friends of the Gardens. The aim is to give the opportunity for people who have some qualifications and experience in biological sciences to extend their knowledge and skills. The interns attend lectures and workshops on a wide range of topics (including ‘how to get a job’), in exchange for work on a variety of projects with staff or together in teams.

As with last year’s program, we had a wide range of people at various stages of their study and lives giving up their time to work with us.  For example, one of our recruits was Gareth Hambridge, one of the Trust’s horticulturalists working in the Tropical Centre, Sydney. Gareth is not only a great horticulturalist but also has a degree in environmental biology.  James Indsto, a Forensic Botanist for NSW Police, also joined the Intern Program for part of the time.  James attended enough seminars and herbarium work sessions to better understand how the herbarium resource can assist him in his current job. As a result the Trust and NSW Police will sign a formal letter of co-operation so that we can assist their work.

Many of the projects that the Interns were working on were based on the herbarium collection.  Examples of some of the outcomes are: 1892 specimens incorporated into shelving boxes; 1029 incoming exchange specimens accessioned and electronic data checked; 1056 boxes of Euphorbiaceae specimens sorted into a new taxonomic order; 1029 exchange specimens updated electronically ready for incorporation into the collection, and 789 moss specimens mounted in new archival materials.

Other projects: working with the staff at Mount Annan Botanic Garden in the Seeds Laboratory running seed trials; making covers for our very old registers (large old record books needing preservation); electronic collection of species data for ecological work.

A highlight for the Interns was the four day fieldtrip to the Central Coast, staying at the University of Sydney’s field station at Pearl Beach, where they were shown a range of different vegetation communities, learnt how to collect and identify plants, carried out ecological sampling in a mangrove habitat, and got to know one another and the staff.

The specimens they collected were pressed and dried and brought back to the Herbarium for identification. The Interns then documented their own collections in the NSW Collections Database. On their last day they put away their specimens into the correct spot in the herbarium collection, there to stay for many hundreds of years. This in itself was a great thrill for the Interns.

All the work carried out by the Interns is fundamental in supporting the scientific research projects here. Three of the Interns, Marnie Innis, Olgney Pinto and Katie Shields, have become members of staff, and have all been doing extra study this year.

As with the 2007 Interns, the Interns of 2008 said that the program was fantastic and life changing.  “Knowing that we [Science in the Botanic Gardens Trust] actually exist and knowing the kind of work that we do was one of most rewarding things about the program”.
The 2009 Intern Program will run next January and February thanks to continued support from the Friends of the Gardens.