Seven extraordinary women that inspire us

Madeline has worked across residential and estate gardens, heritage garden dwellings, restoration of native and endemic species and internationally recognised golf courses in Sydney. She is very passionate about sustainable land management, rehabilitation of native plant species and the power of horticultural innovation.

Madeline’s role as a Senior Horticulturalist at Centennial Parklands involves the management of time, resources and scheduling for the horticulture team. Her current projects and expertise include;

• Procurement of Centennial Parklands Rose Garden species,
• Redesign of Randwick Gate entry,
• Ornamental Gardens - soil amendments and remediation plan,
• Propagation of on-site vegetation - exotic and native,
• Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrubland Project,
• Integrated Pest Management,
• and the Ian Potter Children’s Wildplay Garden  

Over the span of her career, Yvonne's motivation has been to contribute to creating more liveable and humanised spaces full of interest, textures, colours and shapes. One of her strengths is her ability to analyse the opportunities, constraints and parameters of a project, and formulate solutions using her ability to think outside the box. 

Yvonne has been involved in the design of a range of projects including:

• the PlantClinic, Woolloomoloo and South Africa precincts at Royal Botanic Garden Sydney,
• Exciting new projects that will be unveiled at the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden Sydney,
• Entry, Building Colour palette and Xanthorrea Garden at the Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan,
• Celebration Steps, Discovery Centre and Rose Garden Precinct at Centennial Park, and Kippax Lake at Moore Park

Sophie works as part of the team who manage the botanical database that stores the data of the living collections. She assists in managing the living collection data by undertaking the stocktake of each plant across all three Gardens, as well as recording their GPS coordinates and helping to produce maps with this data. 

Providing accurate data, research and interpretation of the plant species in the garden gives Sophie satisfaction that her work is helping visitors to the Gardens to learn about and appreciate the plants around them. She is currently involved in a significant project, transitioning the living collection data to a new database. This involves the migration of 277,451 plant accession records and rolling out training to over 50 staff.  She is also working on researching and analysing the gardens’ Protea collection with the purpose to have it listed as a National Collection.
 
Sophie’s favourite part of her job is being able to interact with, and learn about, a vast variety of interesting plants. She feels lucky she works in a role where she can appreciate the beauty of nature every day.
 

Marion has always had an affinity for plants and loved studying plant science at university, but now she is working with plants in a much more practical way at the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden Mount Tomah. Being an apprentice means that she is constantly learning new and varied skills as well as the passionate people in the Garden. 

She is currently working with the turf team learning everything there is to know about grass and installing new turf at the entrance of the Garden over the next three months. You can see other projects that Marion has worked across the Garden including;
 

• Planting and irrigation of the dahlia beds in the formal garden,
• maintenance of both the Breen Children’s Garden and Jungle Lodge
• and pruning proteas throughout the South African Rock Garden.

Elizabeth considers herself fortunate to be employed in a position that allows her to be an advocate for the areas in life that she is most passionate: gardening, education, community building and assisting others to reach their potential. A testament to how fulfilling she finds this role is reaching a 10 year milestone in the position this month.

She works with a range of people, many coming from a position of disadvantage. Her greatest thrill is to see people blossom in a garden environment and some of her career highlights over the past 10 years with Community Greening include;

• Speaking at BGANZ conference with a Community Greening member,
• having clients she has nominated win local and state awards, including for their volunteer work,
• working with Bidwill Community Garden over 10 years and having their story told at an international horticulture education conference,
• working with Mission Australia’s Benjamin Short Grove in Orange, a facility for vulnerable people.
• working with community members on displays for the Flower Show, judged by the Mayor of Orange.