Guest Speaker – Dr Eddy Wajon – The Benefits of Growing Natives: Plants for Gardens and Large Landscapes

Eddy Wajon is a longtime member and past President of the Wildflower Society of WA (WSWA). He is very involved in environmental issues and has campaigned for the protection of native bushland Australia-wide for the last 30 years.  He is currently the National Conservation Officer for the Australian Native Plants Society Australia.  He has drafted two Position Statements for the Wildflower Society of WA which have been adopted nationally, and has travelled the country promoting them to government.

He is a keen citizen botanist and photographer and has written and/or published seven books through his own publishing company, and has contributed photos to calendars on wildflowers, as well as to many other publications.

He and his wife own 2 Conservation-covenated properties in Gondwanalink, where they spend increasing amounts of time in retirement surveying, documenting, protecting and restoring the bushland, while educating and sharing them with others.  He turned 70 last year, which he celebrated with an indigenous feast at one of the properties.

Eddy and Donna Wajon own a house on a 700m2 block in Winthrop and Chingarrup Sanctuary, a 5,720,000m2 bush block in the Fitz-Stirling Gondwanalink Corridor.

The Winthrop house was built in 1988, and the original property design included lawns and a perimeter native garden.  Over the last 20 years the lawns have been replaced in 2 stages with a totally native wildflower garden.  Chingarrup Sanctuary was almost totally cleared in the 1960’s but when we purchased the property in 2002, all but 100ha had regrown.  Within the first five years of ownership, we revegetated 80ha with locally native species.

This talk will showcase how we turned the lawns at the Winthrop property into a native garden that contains Banksias, Eucalypts, Melaleucas, Grevilleas, Acacias, Balgas, Lechenaultias, Verticordias, Eremophilas, sedges, grasses, Callistemons, Hakeas, Trachymenes, Petrophiles, Kennedia and many more.  The garden has undergone numerous changes over the years as plants have died and I will show photos of the garden as it has evolved.

Chingarrup Sanctuary was purchased in 2002 and contains 670 native plant species and more than 900 animal species including mammals, birds, bats, reptiles, moths, ants and spiders.  The talk will describe how the property has been revegetated with locally native species and how we have undertaken feral animal control, weed management, bird mist netting, fauna pit trapping, moth light trapping and ant collection with Bush Heritage Australia and Citizen Scientists.

Besides showcasing a wonderful array of flora and fauna, Eddy will describe some of the pleasures and benefits of gardens and landscapes full of native plants and animals.