South Gippsland Koalas say thank you!

South Gippsland Koalas say thank you!

Koalas and other native species are saying thank you this month.  Thank you to the Australian Plant Society – South Gippsland (APS-SG) for their wonderful donation of $10,000 to the South Gippsland Landcare Fund for the creation of koala habitat.

South Gippsland Landcare Fund Chair, Nick Dudley said “We are incredibly grateful to all the members of APS – SG and their wonderful donation to the Fund. This will help fund projects in South Gippsland to protect and create habitat for koalas and other native species. “

The APS – SG have been raising funds via annual Flower Shows since 1988. What started as simply a display of Australian flowers grown in the area grew over the years to include plant sales, art exhibitions, flower arrangements, and even a snake handler and someone who flew raptors.  An Art Exhibition was also added, and our artists added a beautiful advertising flyer for each year. The flower shows raised funds by selling native plants as well as other donations.

APS, with the money raised, paid for and planted a lovely local native streetscape outside the Inverloch Primary School with the help and assistance of the School Principal and the Committee. Other donations were made along the way.

Unbeknownst to the group 2019 would be the last flower show, with future years being cancelled due to restrictions.

Coral Hughes “We find that we are all that bit older and not as young as we used to be, so now seems to be a good time to give the money to Landcare that can make good use of it to better the environment as we have all worked towards over the years.”

The Landcare Fund will use the donation to fund projects on local Landcare properties to create koala habitat, creating corridors for our precious koalas to move safely across the landscape. If you would like to help create even more koala habitat, please visit follow the link bellow to make a tax-deductible donation.

Australian Plants Society South Gippsland

Australian Plants Society South Gippsland was formed in October 1987 and the following year we had our first Flower Show at the Koonwarra Hall on the same weekend in November as the South Gippsland Fun Run, from Leongatha South PS to Koonwarra Primary School.

This was simply a display of Australian flowers grown in the area, lovely bush smells and many callistemons.

The following year was the first of the plant sales from the several wholesale nurserymen that were part of the group, including Barry Hill, Ian Starkey, Ian Cornthwaite, Robert Brown, with Adrian Rathjen and Dick Lester the following year and Blue Gum Nursery the year after that. Others involved include Rob O’Sullivan and Megan at Melaleuca. The growers would deliver their plants Saturday morning and pick up any remaining Sunday afternoon.

Meantime the members would be in charge of selling so nobody really knew who produced what.

The show and sale continued in the hall and surrounds until 1994 when we moved to the G&N Saleyards at Koonwarra. These allowed for much more room and display area so the plant sales area was a bit bigger and we included the Conservation Society (Book Sales) ladies doing floral arrangements WaterWatch, Snake Handler twice and later a Gentleman who flew 6 different Raptors, we did that for 3 years. The date became earlier in November, including once on the cup weekend. Never to be repeated.

In 2007 we moved the date to mid October and moved into one of the Exhibition sheds at the Leongatha Recreation Reserve, which was the GHAC Clubrooms The plant sales had been doing well and with being more central they kept improving.

An Art Exhibition was also added and our artists added a beautiful advertising flyer for each year.

We paid for and planted a lovely local native streetscape outside the Inverloch Primary School with the help and assistance of the School Principal and the Committee. Other donations were made along the way.

So 2019 was our last Flower Show , unbeknownst to us. It was again a great display and good fun. And then came Covid19!

And so we find that we are all that bit older and not as young as we used to be, so now seems to be a good time to give the money to a Group that can make good use of it to better the environment as we have all worked towards over the years.

We are of course still meeting as a club and promoting and enjoying our native plants and enjoying each others company.

Coral Hughes “Donating the funds to the Landcare funds means we know it will be used well and create habitat for koalas and other animals”

“We encourage others to donate as well so we can create even more habitat for this special species”

One of the brochures promoting the Native Plant Sale