Grevillea Park set to open The Illawarra Grevillea Park will be open to the public for two weekends this month for its popular Spring Open Days. 2508 meets the man behind the magic. The park, near Bulli Showground, at the foot of the Illawarra Escarpment, attracts hundreds of people every time it opens. It’s a glorious wonderland of flora (including more than 300 types of Grevillea species, their hybrids and many Australian plants) and fauna, not the least of which is the varied and delightful birdlife. But this wondrous showcase of nature hasn’t come about by accident. It’s the result of many years of hard work and planning by a dedicated team of volunteers, who work in the park, and members of the Illawarra Grevillea Park Society, a non-profit voluntary society. But one bloke in particular deserves the lion’s share of the credit for the park’s success, according to many of those who know him and work with him in the park. That man is Grevillea Park manager Ray Brown of Bulli. Ray, who owns and manages his well-known Brown’s Wholesale Nursery in Wollongong, is well respected in the gardening world; TV gardening personality Don Burke is claimed to have credited Ray with teaching him all he knows about propagating. (Ray does all the propagating in the park, among countless other jobs.) Ray’s been involved with the park since 1987; it was officially opened on September 25, 1993. He was kind enough to have a chat with 2508. Have you always had a green thumb? Yeah – I was always a gardener from way, way back and my father was a gardener before me. What’s the appeal of grevilleas? I’m a plant lover right across the board; this is just one big facet of it. I’ve been basically doing this [working at Grevillea Park], one day a week for 30 years. There are other weeks I’ve had to spend more time up here and I suppose we’ve done about $10 million worth of work in kind over those 30 years.
Grevillea Park manager Ray Brown
Tell us about you and your team. I’ve got three or four key people. I’m a professional gardener, so you’ve got to have total control to make it work because you run gardening like a business. It’s got to be done right and I do spend extra hours there, besides my normal hours. I’m passionate about what I do. Your work here must give you a deep sense of satisfaction. The biggest satisfaction of all is when people walk out of the place with a big smile on their face and say ‘Thank you’ because you know they’ve really enjoyed being there. That’s the most important thing of all: having people come here and say ‘Wow! Thank you very much’ … it’s bloody spectacular. n Grevillea Park’s enclosed section will be open from 10am to 4pm on Saturday and Sunday, September 3 and 4, and Saturday and Sunday, September 10 and 11. Plants, gardening books and birds, will be on sale during the open days. Admission is $5 (adults); children get in free. Other parts of the park – including its rainforest walks and barbecue facilities – are open all year. For more, visit www.grevilleapark.org or The Illawarra Grevillea Park. 2508
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