Logan River
Monthly Meetings
Native Plants Queensland’s Logan River branch meets on the third Thursday of each month at a different venue each time. Meetings start at 9.30am. Check the events calendar for details of our meeting location.
Logan River branch meetings are held outdoors at a local national park, council reserve or botanic gardens, or at a branch member’s house where members are able to visit their garden. The branch meeting can also include a talk from a guest speaker.
At Logan River branch meetings members often discuss different cultivation techniques and problems as well as many other native plant related issues such as future nursery projects, interesting areas to explore and visit, plants with horticultural potential, and local conservation issues. We plan future outings and make plans for Native Plants Queensland’s regional plant markets. The branch meetings always commence with a shared morning tea and finish with lunch for those who like to stay on. Members bring plant samples from their gardens to discuss or show as well as plants to share in a plant raffle.
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Members
Native Plants Queensland’s Logan River branch is home to three of the four authors of the field guide to native plants of the south-east corner, Mangroves to Mountains. Denis Cox, Jan Glazebrook and Glenn Leiper’s knowledge of Australian native plants is highly respected and they are more than happy to share that knowledge with ‘novice’ members.
Logan River branch has approximately 30 members, with usually 20 or more attending each meeting. Annual membership of our branch is only $1 in addition to your NPQ membership fees. New members receive a welcome pack containing lots of information and a voucher for free plants from the Logan River nursery.
Projects
Logan River Branch Nursery
On the first Thursday of the month our group meets at Eagleby Wetlands Community Nursery for a propagation morning. We use different propagating techniques, growing plants from seeds and cuttings as well as grafting. We grow many different kinds of plants, from grevilleas and callistemons to butterfly host plants and bush tucker plants. The resulting plants are shared amongst members or sold at one of Native Plants Queensland’s regional Plant Markets.
Mangroves to Mountains
Logan River Branch support the authors of Mangroves to Mountains, a field guide to the native plants of South-East Queensland.
The guide can be purchased from the website below:
Logan City Council
Logan River branch is currently developing a collaborative relationship with Logan City Council in a number of different areas and we anticipate that this relationship will develop and expand.
Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service
At present the branch is working with QPWS through the community group Friends Of Plunkett in the management of the Plunkett Regional Park.
Branch members at their nursery
History
In 1984, Merv Hodge advertised for people interested in forming an Australian Plants organization in the Logan River area to attend a meeting at the Chambers Flat and Logan Reserve Residents Hall at Kennv Road, Chambers Flat, on 21st August, 1984. Twenty-nine people attended and Merv was nominated to chair the meeting. It was no surprise that he was later elected the first President.
There was some discussion on the activities and business of the organization. It was proposed that it would not be a garden club or a conservation society, although many people were interested in conservation. It would deal mainly with the horticultural aspects of Australian Plants along the lines of the Society for Growing Australian Plants (SGAP). It was discussed whether the organization would be an SGAP Branch or an independent body, with a possibility of joining SGAP at a later date. At that time there was financial incentive to remain as an independent group because most of the members were not already SGAP members. So it became the Logan River Australian Plants Society.
As the years rolled by most of the members joined SGAP independently and then the financial incentive for members tipped the balance the other way. To become a Branch of SGAP would allow the organization to officially take part in SGAP activities and have access to various facilities. The meetings and other activities had always been along the same lines as SGAP and, except for the name change and some administration procedures, members would notice little difference as a branch of SGAP.
On Wednesday, 17th November 1999, the members voted unanimously to become a Branch of SGAP Queensland Region Inc. Their application was accepted by the SGAP Regional Council at a meeting on 26th November 1999 and Logan River Branch of SGAP Queensland Region Inc. officially came into being. Ian Waldron became the first chairman of the new branch and Carolynn Waldron the first Secretary.
In 2015 SGAP Qld Inc adopted the trading name of Native Plants Queensland. Logan River branch continues to be one of NPQ’s most active branches.
Branch members at Tamborine Mountain Botanical Gardens