The Australian Plants Award was established in 1983 to recognise people who have made an outstanding contribution to the knowledge of Australian plants. Since 1987 the Award has been made in both professional and amateur categories; they are presented at ANPSA’s biennial conference, which was held in Victoria in 2024.

• The 2024 Professional Award goes to Neville G. Walsh, former senior botanist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Victoria.
• The 2024 Amateur Award goes to Northcote-based artist and author Trevor L. Blake.

ANPSA President John Aiken said the two were outstanding nominees and the judges were unanimous in their decision. “This award is the highest accolade ANPSA can bestow on any person who has made an enormous contribution to our understanding of Australian Flora.”

Nevil G. Walsh

Neville spent his career as a botanist with the National Herbarium of Victoria, starting in 1977 as a survey botanist and retiring in 2022 as Senior Conservation Botanist.

He co-edited the four-volume Flora of Victoria and submitted accounts of various plant group for publication in the Flora of Australia, but his most passionate discussions often focussed on his field work in identifying and conserving rare and threatened plants.

Neville Walsh (centre) with John Aiken (ANPSA President) and Miriam Ford (APS-Vic President) – Photo: Chris Clarke

For 10 years he served as a member of the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Scientific Advisory committee, and as a member of the Australian Plant Census working group, the Mountain Invasions Research Network, and the recovery teams for threatened plants and animals in Victoria.

He is still an honorary researcher at the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne and is working on a book on Acacias in Victoria and Tasmania, among other projects.

He was involved in describing and naming more than 140 new plant species and subspecies, and the National Herbarium of Victoria holds more than 6,000 specimens collected by him.

Neville says he was “one of those ‘interested in nature’ kids, encouraged by parents, particularly dad,” but also spent many hours pottering about with his grandmother gardening and walking through the heathland near Rosebud, where he grew up. His first interest was birdwatching, but when his family moved to a new home on a barren block, he became interested in plants as a source of habitat and food for birds.

He never expected to go to university but, luckily for science, was persuaded by teachers to give it a go. “Biology was a no-brainer so I did majors in botany and zoology and leaned plant-wise from then on.” A stint of work experience at the Herbarium, mapping plants in East Gippsland, sparked his interest, as well as a lifelong love affair with the rather overlooked genus Pomaderris which he says is a favourite. More than 30 of the plants authored by Neville are Pomaderris species.

His generosity to APS groups and individuals has been greatly appreciated over the years, with Neville always willing to speak to small groups or large seminars, and taking time to follow up discoveries by citizen scientists. He freely advised on the publication of several APS-published books including Lantern Bushes of Australia; Thomasias and other Genera (by Trevor Blake) and Plants of Melbourne’s Western Plains for which he also wrote the foreword.

Neville says he was “really super surprised” to hear of his award, “which I guess is a common response for lucky folk who’ve been paid to do what they love” and that he deliberately kept in contact with plant and science groups “often for my benefit as much as or more than theirs, and maybe with a bit of hope that some information can lead to better protection of local rarities”.

“I recall as a ‘greenhorn’ how much I valued the knowledge, advice and enthusiasm of ‘proper’ botanists, and like giving back a little.”

Neville was nominated for the award by APS Victoria, whose citation stated: “Neville is a wonderful person who never seems to know when to say ‘No’. His field work, specimen collecting and published material has made an enormous difference to the knowledge of Australia’s and particularly Victoria’s, natural flora.”

 

Trevor L. Blake

Trevor’s lifelong fascination with native flora was inspired by a spring walk in the Grampians and a realisation that he only recognised wattles. His love of bushwalking took him all over Australia and he and wife Beryl were also pioneer skiers from the pre-ski-lift days. His photos from early walks in Tasmania are as impressive for the peaks they scaled as for his memory of each plant he photographed 50-60 years ago.

An early member of the Blackburn Tree Society, he recalls the 1966 meeting at Fred Roger’s Heathmont house when the Maroondah group of the Australian Plants Society was formed. The group has been one of the most active in Victoria ever since, spurred on in part by Trevor’s enthusiasm and passion. Over the years he helped run courses on native plants organised by the group, developed a stunning 1-hectare native garden that was frequently opened to the public, led the national Banksia Study Group (1973-2000), as well as informal study groups on Epacridaceae, Goodeniaceae and pea plants.

Trevor Blake (centre) with John Aiken (ANPSA President) and Miriam Ford (APS-Vic President) – Photo: Chris Clarke

Fascinated by banksias, he began drawing them, and worked with friend and then-Monash student Alf Salkin on studying the banksias of eastern Australia. Alf introduced him to botanical artist Celia Rosser, who became a good friend.

When Trevor’s schoolfriend, plantsman Rodger Elliot, was invited to write an encyclopaedia of Australian plants, Trevor provided all the line drawings. The original plan was for two volumes, but in total nine 500-page books were published. The two also worked together on a number of Identikit Field Guides and other books, and Trevor independently wrote and illustrated A Guide to Darwinia & Homoranthus (1981) and Lantern Bushes of Australia; Thomasias and Allied Genera (2022).

Trevor taught at primary and secondary schools for 14 years before being offered a job at a teachers college, where he was involved in arts education for 30 years. During a long-service leave break he “headed west with his family and botanised till I was blue in the face”, which included climbing 11 peaks of the Stirling Ranges. This would become a family ritual over the next few decades, exploring more and more remote parts of Australia. Beryl said that the fridge would gradually fill with plant cuttings; “When there was no room for food, it was time to come home.”

His shared experiences of growing outback plants at home has led to a greater understanding of many species, and he is responsible for introducing Thomasia pygmaea into cultivation.

On his retirement from RMIT they bought a Landcruiser and went even deeper into the outback, becoming involved in a number of Desert Discovery citizen science expeditions, which involved recording plants and reptiles in the outback while Beryl shared her birding expertise.

He served for many years as Australian Garden Ambassador at the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne and, on moving from Ringwood to Northcote, became a keen member and supporter of the APS Keilor Plains group.

Trevor says receiving the award was “A real surprise”. He was nominated by APS Victoria, whose citation states: “Trevor’s contribution to the knowledge, education and growing of Australian plants will make him a very worthy recipient of the Australian Plants Award.”