Albany Branch
Albany Branch of the Wildflower Society of Western Australia Inc
What the Albany Branch of the Wildflower Society of Western Australia is about.
Our Branch run several activities throughout the year. In spring we focus on the popular Albany Wildflower Show, celebrating the wide range of local wildflowers and those within our surrounding districts. Monthly open (to the public) meetings with guest speakers are followed by a Saturday Walk, usually reflecting the speaker’s topic. On the 10th day of the month, there is a short, late afternoon walk within the City Reserves, highlighting the importance of remnant bush. Weekly, Volunteers administer, manage & add to the vast collection within the Albany Herbarium.
Speakers and Walks for 2025
Monthly Tuesday meeting with a Speaker commencing at 7pm the DBCA conference room at 120 Albany Hwy, Albany
June Calendar
Tuesday June 10th Walk at 4pm; To Find 10 interesting Trees, park on Collingwood Road at the top end between Taylor and Beresford roads. There is a strip of trees on the west side with ample informal verge parking. When we have seen the selected trees we have the option of going out on Kanga rock, depending on the light & the weather !!
Tuesday Meeting, June 17th at 7pm; Our Speaker this month is Ken McNamara, Adjunct Professor, Earth Sciences, UWA & Emeritus Fellow, Downing College, Cambridge about the “The Secret Lives of Western Australian Rocks”
Rocks are keepers of many of the secrets of Earth’s long history – past environments, changing climates and the pulse of life over billions of years. Even the most seemingly insignificant rock can tell us much about the history of this planet, opening vistas of ancient worlds of ice, raging floods, strange unbreathable atmospheres, and prehistoric worlds teeming with life.
Remarkably, many types of rocks owe their existence to living organisms – from the bodies of dead animals, to those formed from the remains of plants or even created by the activity of fungi, bacteria and viruses. In this talk I will concentrate on such rocks in Western Australia, made from or created by once living organisms – from pea-gravels to Pinnacles; from banded ironstone in the Pilbara to the Bunda Cliff limestones of the Nullarbor Plain and the spongolites of the Albany region – and much more. There might even be some photos of the plants that grow on the rocks!
Saturday Walk on June 21st at 9am ; Meet at the Eden Rd letterboxes on the corner of Eden Rd and Lower Denmark Rd, Youngs Siding at 9am on Saturday. Plan is to go to where the Bibbulmun track crosses Reeves Grove and walk east from there. Very few fungi but a lot of Templetonia retusa and pleasant moss lined walk under a tunnel of trees.
Contacting the Albany Branch
Secretary : Jo Kempin 0428 241 225
Email: albanyherb@outlook.com
Albany Herbarium
The Albany Herbarium is located at the rear of DBCA, entry is the corner of Moir & Hymus Streets, (Black gate). If you want to access the Herbarium to use the resources or to volunteer it is best to contact the Co-ordinators first.
The Herbarium is open Tuesday & Wednesday from 9am to 12noon.
Co-ordinator : Wendy Minchin 9845 1220.
Email : albanyherb@outlook.com (checked Tuesdays & Wednesdays)
Address : Albany Herbarium, c/o DBCA 120 Albany Hwy Albany 6330
ALBANY WILDFLOWER SHOW
Wednesday 24th to Saturday 27th September 2025
at the St John’s Hall, York Street, Albany
9am-4pm Wed – Saturday,
$5.50 Children Free Wheelchair Access
100s of botanically curated Wildflowers from across The Great Southern