Richard Tretheway (NRM Board President), Bev and Dean Overton, Damian Miley (DEWNR) (Photo: KI NRM)

What do an adventure tourism operator, a boutique winery and long-time Kangaroo Island residents Bev and Dean Overton have in common? They have all been recognised Kangaroo Island high achievers, for their outstanding efforts in conserving and raising awareness of KI’s natural environment at the Local Achievers Natural Resource Management Board Awards ceremony held on Australia Day.

The award categories included a special Lifetime NRM Achievement Award, which acknowledged Bev and Dean’s contribution to environmental projects in the KI community for more than 35  years. In particular, they have been recognised because they were:

• instrumental in improving the condition of, and knowledge about the Island’s native vegetation for over 35 years
• members of the KI Animal and Plant Control Committee, the Bridal Creeper Control Committee and the KI NRM Board’s Biosecurity Advisory Group
• They are founder members of the Friends of Cape Gantheaume Group and the KI Fauna and Flora Club
• Undertaken research and published reports
• Published two editions of Discover Kangaroo Island’s Native Plants
• Continue to research the distribution and density of weed species and of South Australian Orchids
• Mentored younger scientisits, local students and the community.

Bev and Dean Overton in their natural habitat (Photo: KI NRM)

In addition, Bev and Dean have been indefatigable contributors to the State Herbarium of South Australia, collecting plant specimens from the island for more than 30 years. They are listed as main or associate collectors on over 4000 herbarium specimens. Bev’s first specimen lodged at AD was collected at Kingscote in Nov. 1983. Both are also long-time friends of many staff and Hon. Associates of the State Herbarium. They have helped with fieldwork on Kangaroo Island, assisted and collaborated in many projects.

Thank you!

The State Herbarium of South Australia wishes all its friends, volunteers, Hon. Associates and Affiliates a happy Christmas break and all the best for the New Year.

We hope to see you all again in 2016!

Two weeks ago, we celebrated the end of another year at the Herbarium with our volunteers. To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the institution, all volunteers and Hon. Associates also received certificates thanking them for their contribution. During the last year, Herbarium volunteers donated over 13.000 hours of their valuable time. Our longest serving volunteer has worked with us for 34 years!

The traditional Herbarium Christmas party, 10 Dec. 2015.

Pam Catcheside and SA Governor Hieu Van Le (Photo: P. Canty)

State Herbarium Hon. Research Associate Pam Catcheside has recently been invited to Government House to celebrate her inclusion in the 2015 South Australian Women’s Honour Roll. This recognises her outstanding contribution in the field of mycology, ranging from the collection and observation of fungi in the field to the detailed examination & description of specimens and the publication of her results; the honour also recognises the fact that she is South Australia’s only official mycologist, filling a void in a significant area of South Australia’s biodiversity knowledge, as well as her dedication to volunteers and to making the information accessible to the community (see here for the official citation).

Congratulations Pam!

The South Australian Women’s Honour Roll pays tribute to SA women who have made an outstanding contribution to our community. The 2015 Honour Roll was launched by the Hon Gail Gago MLC, Minister for the Status of Women. This year, 30 women were included in the Honour Roll.

Chief Botanist Michelle Waycott, State Herbarium staff members Ed Biffin, Juergen Kellermann & Ainsley Calladine, and Herbarium Honorary Research Associates Robyn & Bill Barker attended the Annual Conference of the Australasian Systematic Botany Society (ASBS) in Canberra last week (30 Nov.-2 Dec. 2015).

Presentations were given by Ed (on molecular systematics and species identification in seagrasses), Robyn (on problems with old type specimens) and Michelle (on the South Australian eFlora platform). In addition, Michelle presented the current status of the national work towards the development of a decadal plan for systematics research in Australasia (ASBS Newsl. article, 3.3MB PDF). Bill Barker completed his tenure as President of ASBS, his work for the Society was greatly appreciated. The conference had strong themes in digitisation, data sharing and initiatives to facilitate working across Australia and New Zealand including the development of a new electronic Flora application by the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA).

PhyloLink, a new application in ALA was launched during the conference and delegates were able to attend a PhyloLink workshop following the conference (Juergen attended that workshop). Scott Edwards from Harvard University‘s Museum of Comparative Zoology presented a workshop on phylogenomic analyses, which was attended by Michelle and Ed.

The program booklet, including abstracts of all talks, can be downloaded here (460KB PDF).