Western Australia is famous for its wealth of native flora. One of my favourite pastimes as a child was wandering the bush near my family home. Extensive travel in the South West of W.A in school holidays with my family, would also give me the same opportunity that I loved.

The fascination for all these unusual plants had been kindled by my mother’s book of wild flowers.
It was in the days when it was perfectly safe as a child to wander alone, to your heart’s content, discovering the plethora of diversity of the plants.

The brilliance of colour and delicacy of the flowers is remarkable, covering a whole palette of primary colours, the rich ethereal blue of the Leschenaultia, the yellows of the wattles, vibrant reds of kangaroo paws and Sturt Peas, purple hoveas, just a few of the now thousands of named species.

My fascination however, was the orchids, always being excited finding a previously undiscovered specimen, that I had seen catalogued in the book, spider, bird, primrose, enamel, donkey, shell orchids. I would carefully pick just one of these beauties and on returning home would press them between two sheets of grease proof paper.

These days all our magnificent wildflowers are thankfully protected for future generations.