By Parker McKenzie
At Wally Tew Reserve in Ferntree Gully, a nursery is nestled away where people inside a large sheet metal and concrete shed busily package seeds.
Members of the Knox Environmental Society are aiming to collect seeds of every native plant growing throughout the region, knowing full well the folly of their goal.
In 1982, a group of 35 people came together to form an environmental to protect and advocate for native flora and fauna in the Knox area.
Today, the Knox Environmental Society has over 200 members and is celebrating its 40th anniversary throughout 2022.
Knox Environmental Society President Richard Faragher said the society works with other organisations to preserve Knox’s most vulnerable and precious species of fauna.
“We also have an advocate role as well, we’re involved in environmental issues worldwide, nation-wide, state-wide and locally,” he said.
“We’re a not-for-profit group and all the money made through the nursery is then recycled into worthwhile projects around Knox and everywhere else.”
The nursery contains flowers from other nurseries and the society is currently cultivating an order of rare native plants from Knox City Council.
The society has advocated for and ran campaigns for local environmental issues, including supporting the efforts to save Lake Knox from development.
Mr Faragher said ecosystems are in trouble worldwide and if you don’t protect the local environments, they’ll quickly disappear.
“We know that development is big at the moment in Victoria. We’re very keen to develop and that’s not a bad thing if we are taking up open space,” he said.
“If we’re just trying to extend into ecosystems, then it’s no different to doing it in the Amazon basin or anywhere else, it’s still a valuable ecosystem and you can’t replace it.”
Mr Faragher said he became involved in society when he started buying plants from the nursery in the 1980s.
“It just went from there. I then became a volunteer and then got on the committee. They then stupidly elected me president,” he said.
“Now we’ve got about 200 members. It’s been steadily growing over the last 10 years and we’ve actually had quite a big influx of members over the last few years.”
People often want currently flowering when they buy from the nursery, with banksias being a popular purchase.
Mr Faragher said one of the reasons for the increase in membership is people are now more aware of environmental issues than before.
“They see the suburbs and city changing in a way they don’t particularly like and that goes right through not only locally, but they see it state and national and international as well,” he said.
“People want to be involved in the community and we have a lovely little community where they can feel valued and supported.
“We run on coffee and chocolate down here. There are always plenty of places to sit around and have a chat, grow plants or stir up politicians. What better life can you have?”
