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Latest News from the Friends

23 July, 2019
Welcome to the August Newsletter with all the latest from the Friends of Kings Park.

Find out about news and upcoming events at the Friends of Kings Park. Highlights include our Lotterywest Festival Grant, Plant Sale information, Festival Address tickets on sale and the 2020 Friends Calendar has just been released. Not to mention our members-only nursery tour, a new Climate Watch walk and a full calendar of events for the rest of 2019!

In this issue

Lotterywest Grant

Thank you to Lotterywest

A huge thank you to Lotterywest for their continuing support of the Friends of Kings Park!

We are very grateful to have recently received a $100,000 grant from Lotterywest for the 2019 Kings Park Festival.

The grant, presented on behalf of Lotterywest by Mr John Carey MLA, Member for Perth, marks more than 10 years of friendship between Lotterywest and the Friends of Kings Park. Mr Carey was pleased to present the grant and stated, “Without a doubt, Kings Park is the heart and soul of Perth.”

The grant will enable the Kings Park Festival to promote and celebrate Western Australia’s extraordinary wildflower season, with dozens of free and fabulous events and activities planned this September. The grant will also enable the Kings Park Festival to continue to help the community understand and appreciate how unique and precious the Western Australian environment is and encourage all Western Australians to play their part in protecting it.

This year’s Festival will include the biggest community art project the park has ever tackled as well as the return of popular walks, talks and seminars.

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Mr Alan Barrett, Executive Director, Botanic Gardens & Parks Authority; Mr John Carey MLA, Member for Perth; Mrs Pippa Moodie, President, Friends of Kings Park and some of our enthusiastic volunteers!

Festival Community Art Project

Make your own woven wildflower and have it displayed in Kings Park this September. Photo: D. Blumer.

Help create the Festival’s biggest ever community art installation! The creative installation will be built from hundreds of ‘woven wildflowers’ and displayed in Kings Park this September. The circular ‘woven wildflowers’ will be a mix of sizes and can be woven or crocheted with yarn, fabric or even cellophane. So, get crafty!
Find out more about this project here

Festival Plant Sale

One of the highlights of the 2019 Festival will be the Festival Plant Sale!
Our Growing Friends have been busy in the nursery preparing for the Plant Sale, and we’d love your help in delivering our biggest Plant Sale for the year.

Saturday 14th September; 9am to 4pm
Sunday 15th September; 9am to 2pm

Please make sure you use our website form to sign up for the roster.
While we know that many of you will be doing the same task as previous plant sales we still need you to let us know you to fill in the form as we rely on it to fill the roster and make sure all tasks are covered.

  • Please complete the form in full and ensure you click submit to send your entry in
  • You will receive a notification on-screen and a confirmation email once your entry has been successfully submitted
  • Please do not assume we know you are volunteering as we rely on form submissions to fill our rosters

If you are having any trouble submitting the form, please email Alex at [email protected] and we can manually add you.

Sign up for the September Plant Sale Roster

2020 Calendar on sale!

Our ever-popular Wildflower Calendar is back featuring a beautiful selection of native flowers and plants. It makes the perfect gift for locals and visitors alike. Our contributors this year include our Office Administrator, Helena Waldmann, Beth Baker, well-known wildflower photographer and Georgie Wilson, Volunteer Guide at Kings Park.

The calendar is available at Aspects of Kings Park – show your Friends membership card at to receive a 15% discount off the retail price. Visit the Aspects website to order online.

It is also available through the Friends office, visit the Friends website to download an order form.

Don’t forget, proceeds from the sale of the calendar go straight to the Friends, to support important projects within Kings Park.

Make sure you don’t miss out! Last year’s calendar sold out faster than we anticipated and a few folk were left disappointed. Support the Friends of Kings Park by purchasing your calendar now!

Download the Calendar order form here

Festival Address

We are pleased to announce that Neville Marchant AM will deliver the 2019 Festival Address.

“South-western plants: a diverse flora from a northwards drifting Gondwanan raft”

Dr Marchant began his career in botany at 15, with his first job as an assistant at the Western Australian Herbarium. The passionate expert in flora has since studied and worked both in Australia and overseas, with highlights including completing his PhD at Cambridge University and a Churchill Fellowship to study at Kiev, Ukraine. A published botanic author, Dr Marchant has written several books and hundreds of scientific articles. He also has a species of Drosera named after him (Drosera marchantii, pictured) in addition to five other Western Australian species.

Date: Thursday 5 September 2019
Time: Doors open at 5:30 pm for drinks and catering, with introductions commencing at 6.20 pm
Venue: Green Room, Education Centre, off Fraser Avenue, Kings Park
Cost: $30 members, $35 non-members, tickets available on Trybooking

Purchase your tickets to the 2019 Festival Address

Book of the Month

Welcome to our new regular column – a featured “book of the month, available at Aspects. Each newsletter we’ll highlight new releases and interesting books available from our favourite gift shop!

This month we bring you Phillipa Nikulinsky’s new book:

“Nikulinsky Naturally: An Artist’s Life“.

‘Nikulinsky Naturally: An Artist’s Life’ celebrates Philippa’s extraordinary career from the mid-1970s, specialising in plants from harsh environments, especially the Great Sandy Desert.

The book contains many images of Philippa working, and her paintings. Much of the works displayed in the exhibition are reproduced in the book, plus a range of other works from the 1970s to the present, selected by Philippa.

Essays by Ted Snell, Kingsley Dixon, Hans Lambers and Angela Nikulinsky.

Available now at Aspects!

Nursery Tour

An exclusive ‘Behind the Scenes’ tour of the Nursery facilities in the lead up to the biggest September plant sale ever, held on Saturday 24th August 2019.

From 10am a guided tour through the Park’s nursery and recycling area will be followed by a ‘close encounter’ with volunteers working in the Friends nursery.

Refreshments will be available at the start of the tour in the BCC lunch room.

This is a members-only event and places are limited to 24 members. Reserve your place with Trybooking.

Reserve your tickets to the Nursery Tour

Climate Watch

Guided Bushland Trail Walk with Ryan Glowacki the Bushland Manager, BGPA
We invite you to join us to discuss our ClimateWatch activities and to explore the specific plants which have been selected to observe along the Bushland Trail.  The walk will be led by the Climatewatch co-ordinators with expert advice and specific insights from Ryan Glowacki.
The walk will be held on Wednesday 21 August 2019 and from past experience will probably last about 2 hours depending on the discussions.
The number of places is limited to ensure that everyone can hear the discussions, so it is essential to book using the link below.
Date – Wednesday 21 August
Time –  8:30am
To Bring – Check weather conditions and bring Hat, water, sunscreen as required.
Conditions – The walk is limited to the Bushland Trail which has Universal Access.
Meeting Place – Under the Mia mia at the Botanic Garden Car park.

We look forward to seeing you there.  If you have any further questions please send an email to [email protected].
Thanks, Paul & Serene

Save the Date

Our Events sub-committee have been busy planning your entertainment for the rest of the year, so mark your calendars for these upcoming events:

If you’d like to be involved in planning these events and more, get in touch at [email protected]. We’d be delighted to hear from you.

Volunteer Code of Conduct

Active volunteers – don’t forget to complete the Code of Conduct online.

What’s on in August

VMG Dig it with Coffee: Native Gardens Advice
Wednesday 7 August
Between 10 and 11.30 am at Zamia Café
Bookings essential: call the Kings Park Master Gardeners on 9480 3672, email [email protected] or visit Kings Park Events Calendar: Dig it with Coffee

Bushland Carers
August Dates: check the Bushland Carers 2019 Volunteer Program Calendar, under the Volunteering page on our website