About Us

For more than 30 years, Friends of Kings Park has been supporting the work of the Botanic Gardens & Parks Authority by active participation in conservation, bushland management and horticulture and through education. Friends also provides volunteer support and funding for scientific research projects through the Gift Fund.

The Foundation General Meeting of the Friends of Kings Park was held on 5 May 1993 with 12 founding members. Under the Chairmanship of Tom Alford (pictured below), Friends of Kings Park was established to provide support and assistance to Kings Park and Botanic Garden, to improve the facilities and to enable the community to be involved in making the Park a special place for people and plants. The first issue of our magazine For People & Plants was published in Autumn 1993.

Become a Friends of Kings Park member to join a growing community of over 1,300 members including 250 volunteers.

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Our Vision

To be an advocate for Kings Park, so that it continues to be an inspiration for biodiversity conservation in the face of environmental challenges and to be an exceptional place to visit.

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Our Principal Purpose

Protection and enhancement of the natural environment or of a significant aspect of the natural environment, in Kings Park or Western Australia or both.

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Our Strategic Focus Areas

  1. Protection and enhancement of the Western Australian Botanic Garden and the natural environment of Kings Park
  2. Education on the Western Australian Botanic Garden, the natural environment of Kings Park and the native flora of Western Australia
  3. Meaningful and fulfilling volunteering
  4. Research into the natural environment
  5. The Friends of Kings Park Gift Fund
  6. Friends of Kings Park organisational sustainability

Governance

Friends of Kings Park is an Incorporated Association and a charity registered with the ACNC. The Management Committee ensures that Friends is a sustainable, well run and highly respected organisation with an effective structure and high standards of corporate governance. Accountability to the membership and community is represented by an Annual Report and a Special Purpose Financial Report. A Strategic Plan identifies the Friends’ focus areas and the proposed actions and desired outcomes that Friends will aim for.

The principal purpose of the Friends is the protection and enhancement of the natural environment or of a significant aspect of the natural environment, in Kings Park or Western Australia or both. Guidelines under which Friends operates include:

Friends of Kings Park holds an Annual General Meeting each year. The Management Committee is elected for two years, therefore every second year an election will take place at the AGM. The next election will be held in 2026.

Our Policies

FOKP Policy 001. Life Memberships

FOKP Policy 002. Vic Galea Scholarship

FOKP Policy 003. Tom Alford Scholarship

FOKP Policy 005. Protection of Members’ Personal Data

FOKP Policy 008. Complimentary FOKP Membership for BGPA Staff

FOKP Policy 011. Friends of Kings Park Awards

FOKP Policy 013. Mary Rose Paterson Scholarship

FOKP Policy 014. Friends of Kings Park Membership Fees

FOKP Policy 015. Debit card issue & use

FOKP Policy 016. Complaints

FOKP Policy 017. Conflict of Interest

FOKP Policy 018. Related Party Transactions

FOKP Policy 019. Payment Authorisations

FOKP Policy 020. Investment of Gift Fund monies

FOKP Policy 021. Environmental Sustainability

Please note, policies 015, 019 and 020 are available upon request to Friends of Kings Park members.

Our Patron

Michael Tichbon OAM

Michael Tichbon is a passionate conservationist and generous supporter of the Friends of Kings Park. Through his donations, he has facilitated grants from the Friends of Kings Park Fund to advance the important scientific and horticultural work undertaken at the Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority.

Michael has devoted his time and energy over many years to working for the conservation and protection of WA wildlife and wildflowers. His dedication was recognised in 2019 when he was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for his lifetime service to conservation and the environment. In 2016, the rare native plant Hemigenia tichbonii, was named in his honour.

Michael’s connection to the Friends began in 2013 when he learnt of the work of the Friends of Kings Park Fund in providing grants to PhD students and BGPA staff to undertake research and projects to protect and develop rare cultivars of native flora.

“I am keen to encourage people to grow more endangered WA native plants as they are water wise, require significantly less artificial watering and are more suited to Western Australia’s drying climate” said Michael. “I am impressed that Kings Park and the Friends promote the regeneration and propagation of rare plants so people can buy them and plant them in their gardens. Otherwise we will lose them all together. There is no point in locking them away where no one can see them.”

Our Management Committee

The Management Committee ensures that Friends is a sustainable, well run and highly respected organisation with an effective structure and high standards of corporate governance.

Chris Olney, President

Chris has been a Friend since 2013 when she started training as a Kings Park Volunteer Guide. She was a member of the Guides Committee for six years until 2019, taking on the roles of newsletter editor, vice president and president. Chris is still actively involved with guiding, leading walks and volunteering in the Visitor Information Centre.

For the past nine years Chris has been assisting Tony Scalzo edit For People & Plants magazine. She is also a Growing Friend.

Chris retired from the paid workforce in 2013 after a 45-year career as a journalist, working in newspapers, on radio and as a government communications/media officer.

Email Chris

Kit Wignall, Vice President

Kit joined Friends in 2020, after shifting back from Melbourne, where he’d volunteered with Friends of Cranbourne Botanic Gardens. He joined the Management Committee in 2020 and started volunteering in the Garden Carers and subsequently got involved with the planning & establishment of the new Bushland Restoration project.

Kit is particularly interested in the science of bushland protection and restoration. He’s the joint chair of the Botanic Gardens & Parks Authority and Friends of Kings Park Bushland sub-committee. This group is focused on supporting long term planning strategies and specific initiatives for conservation of the Kings Park bushland.

Kit was part of the sub-committee that developed the 2022-2026 Friends of Kings Park Strategy.

Email Kit

Beryl Crane, Treasurer

Beryl was born in Perth & has lived in Perth, the Wheatbelt & the Hills. Her interest in plants & the environment has been lifelong & she has been an active participant in landcare including tree planting to restore salt affected land & improve stream quality. Beryl’s garden includes native & non-native plants as well as vegetables. She has a particular interest in planning gardens to mitigate fire risk. At Kings Park Beryl works in the Bush Garden, the Garden Advisory Service & in Plant Development.

Beryl is a Chartered Accountant & worked most recently as an auditor with experience in not-for-profits & compliance. Prior jobs included working for Government in various Departments as a Financial Management Officer & Admin Officer. Beryl worked at the WA Herbarium in admin for 7 years & managed a number of NHT grants in that time. Beryl became the Friends Treasurer in September 2024.

Email Beryl

Alisen Brooks, Committee Member

Alisen has been a Growing Friend since 2017. Since 2020, she increased her involvement with the Growers, joining the sub-committee and helping to organise the plant sales during the challenges of the pandemic.

Alisen was born in Sydney & grew up in the leafy suburbs of Adelaide. After graduating with a BSc from Adelaide Uni, she worked as a Immunology Research Assistant & a Public Health Researcher. In the late 1990’s, Alisen moved abroad & spent the next 20 years in SE Asia & Europe, where she taught English and led various charity initiatives. In addition to raising 2 children, Alisen gained a personal trainer qualification & taught pilates in Bangkok.

After returning to Perth in 2016, Alisen joined the Friends of Lake Claremont and Friends of Kings Park. She has always been enamoured by the natural world & her happy places are all outdoors – in the bush, in a garden & in particular in a Botanic Garden where science and nature embrace. Alisen has found joy in learning to propagate some of WA’s native beauties & being in the company of like-minded Friends volunteers.

Max Crowhurst, Committee Member

Max served as a Specialist Plant Breeder with the Plant Development Section at Kings Park and Botanic Garden from 2007 until his retirement in 2019. Max managed the Native Plant Tissue Culture section for the Plant Development Breeding Program and developed new de-flasking and transfer techniques for tissue culture plants as well as advanced native plant vegetative propagation systems.

Max has a background in Mechanical Engineering and worked for the Department of Agriculture for 28 years. In 1995, Max transferred to the Floriculture Section of the Department of Agriculture, where he was involved in native plant selection, plant propagation, and plant breeding development, supporting the Cut Flower Industry.

In 2007, Max joined the Kings Park Plant Development team and helped set up Grevillea and Small Myrtle breeding projects, attracting commercial investment funding. As well as being a member of the Friends Management Committee, Max also volunteers with the Horticultural Advice & Support team and contributes Native Plant Care notes to the monthly Friends newsletter.

Janine Cullen, Committee Member

Janine joined the Friends in 2022 to learn more about WA native plant species and to become involved in conservation and volunteering. She is one of the original recruits of the Bushland Restoration Project, a Garden Carer and Growing Friend.

Janine was born in Fremantle and developed a love of WA native plants while creating charcoal sketches of Wireless Hill bushland as a young art student. She trained as an architect, ran her own graphic design studio and has taught art and architecture history, theory, design and drawing at the University of Western Australia.

She recently completed studies in horticulture and transformed the verge at her home from a barren sandy wasteland to a native garden.

Carolyn Williams, Committee member

Carolyn began her love of Kings Park as a child, frequenting the park for picnics with family. That love has grown as she watched the park’s evolution into the iconic gardens it is now. Carolyn became an active Friends of Kings Park volunteer as a Bushland Carer, where she honed her knowledge of cheeky opportunistic weeds, and now works with the Growing Friends, where she helps propagate hundreds of species of Western Australian native plants for sale at the regular Friends of Kings Park plant sales.

In her professional career, Carolyn had the incredible privilege of being part of the team at University College London who pioneered the current screening test for Cystic Fibrosis. She has a PhD in molecular genetics from the University of London and a Diploma in Dietetics from Curtin University and has been involved in academic research for most of her career, always with the goal of translating basic discoveries into meaningful real-world advances. In her new role as a member of the Friends of Kings Park Management Committee Carolyn hopes her experience as a research leader, board member and former CEO will bring a unique dimension to the already incredible capacity of the team.

Kerry Staines, Committee Member

Kerry joined the Management Committee in 2020. She also does admin work in the Friends office and is a Growing friend. These roles allow Kerry to use the managerial & admin skills acquired over 35 years in the Commonwealth public service as a senior manager & an IT project manager. But more importantly, volunteering has given Kerry the opportunity to get to enjoy the park & the people who take care of it.

Kerry has been the Gardeners’ Circle garden club Secretary & Treasurer, which gave experience of the formalities of Incorporated Associations & their operations. She was also a Red Cross volunteer for 8 years providing admin support to the Emergency Services department. Kerry is in the Friends Work Health & Safety sub-committee & also worked on developing the Strategic Plan 2022-2026, which was of particular interest as it focused on the future of the organisation.

Our Staff

The Management Committee is supported by two part-time employees:

Natalie Simpson, Executive Coordinator

Our Executive Coordinator supports Friends of Kings Park with all aspects of governance, administration, strategy and operations.

Working collaboratively with the President and Management Committee, Office Carers and various sub-committees and volunteers, Natalie plays a central role in ensuring the effective functioning of the organisation, helping Friends achieve its strategic vision.

In particular, Natalie enjoys:

  • Providing high-quality secretariat support to the Management Committee, Gift Fund sub-committee and Annual General Meeting.
  • Strengthening organisational effectiveness with clear internal processes and regular reporting.
  • Overseeing membership and volunteer records, including membership renewals, plant sale payment operations and scholarships.
  • Supporting governance and strategic planning, assisting with the implementation and monitoring of the Friends Strategic Plan, and ensuring compliance with governance, constitutional and ACNC requirements.
  • Recruiting and onboarding new volunteers, as well as supporting members and volunteers, responding to enquiries and coordinating the mail out of the quarterly magazine.
  • Maintaining policies, procedures and risk management frameworks to ensure workplace health and safety and best practice across the organisation.

Dr Laura Skates, Events & Communications Coordinator

Our Events & Communications Coordinator supports Friends of Kings Park with all aspects of event management, communications, education and fundraising.

Laura works closely with our Management Committee, Events Sub-committee, Growing Friends, Horticultural Advice & Support team and Office Carers, and collaborates with the Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority and other stakeholders to help Friends achieve their strategic vision.

In particular, Laura enjoys:

  • Sharing the latest Friends’ news and behind-the-scenes stories from Kings Park and Botanic Garden via our magazine For People & Plants, member e-newsletters, website, social media and other channels.
  • Providing engaging educational experiences and connecting people with Kings Park and Botanic Garden through our regular member events and outreach activities.
  • Supporting gardeners to grow native Western Australian plants through our native plant sales and native gardening educational materials and services.
  • Supporting scientific research and conservation of Kings Park and Western Australian flora through fundraising activities and promotion of the Friends of Kings Park Gift Fund.
  • Advocating for Kings Park and Botanic Garden and working together with our members, volunteers, stakeholders and the wider community to achieve the strategic vision of Friends of Kings Park.

Our Sub-Committees

The Management Committee is supported by the sub-committees below, whose purpose is to support the Management Committee in fulfilling its role of managing the business of the Friends.

A Joint Bushland sub-committee also exists to provide an avenue for the Friends and BGPA Bushland staff to engage and share information on bushland management and conservation issues. Read more about the bushland restoration project here.

Nursery Sub-committee

Alisen Brooks (Chair)
Tony Dickinson
Tony Scalzo
Kerry Staines
Carolyn Williams
Lynda Woodhams

Gift Fund Sub-committee

Tony Scalzo (Chair)
Anne Barden
Beryl Crane
Carolyn Williams
Lyn-Marie Hegarty

Events Sub-committee

Shannon Murphy (Chair)
Alex Hew
Amy Tan
Janine Cullen
Karen Raubenheimer
Laura Skates
Lauren Stuart

Horticultural Advice Service Sub-committee

Bernice Sparks (Chair)
Beryl Crane
Max Crowhurst
Ratna Sulastin