Over the first 30 years of its existence, the Ballarat Cactus and Succulent Society has held some 70 public plant displays, published 322 Newsletters and presented countless slide shows and talks on topics ranging across types of plants (from notocactus to crassulas), natural habitats (particularly South America and southern Africa), botanical gardens and nurseries, propagation, and drawing and photographing plants.
Society members have also spoken at many garden, church, service groups, clubs and schools and hosted group visits from other societies. As well as our shared interest, the friendship and camaraderie makes it a joy to be a member. Long may the Society prosper!
THE FIRST 30 YEARS : A BRIEF HISTORY
Early 1970s: Arthur Bilston Sr and Arthur Bilston Jr, professional horticulturists at the Ballarat Base Hospital, invited interested parties to meet and start a Cactus and Succulent Group. Whilst the city of Ballarat was famous for its gardens and annual Begonia displays, in those days succulent plants were ignored. So a group of enthusiasts commenced meeting monthly in the Bilston’s kitchen in Sebastopol. There were lectures, competitions and plant sales. The meetings became so popular that the kitchen soon became overcrowded.
10 May 1973: On the motion of Noel Main, the Ballarat Cactus and Succulent Society was formally inaugurated. Arthur Bilston Sr was elected the first President, Frank Watts as Vice President, Noel Main as Secretary/Treasurer, with committee members Roger Jones, G Derums and Arthur Bilston Jr. Meetings now started to be held in the Dr Pounds room of the Mechanics Institute, under the Britannia picture theatre.
30th Anniversary Party - 2003
Gathering of three former presidents of the Society,
(L-R) Roger Jones, Karen Bandy and Don Kay
1973: A one-page news-sheet began to be printed on a messy Gestetner machine which leaked ink everywhere.
October 1973: Society holds its first display at the Ballarat Agricultural Show, in an ‘ugly duckling’ wire netting poultry cage!
August 1974: ‘Plant of the Month’ competition introduced.
March 1975: Society mounted its first Begonia Festival display inside the big marquee surrounding the Floral Carpet.
December 1975: At the Christmas meeting, our most experienced member, whilst blindfolded, identified a potato as a Euphorbia obesa!
30th Anniversary Party - 2003
Presentation of John Pascoe Faulkner Gold Medal to Noel Main, secretary of the Society for 30 years
April 1977: Having outgrown its initial public meeting room, the Society now held its meetings in the Victoria League Rooms for the next 17 years. Spacious, comfortable antique chairs, carpet plus bonus Queen Victoria portraits.
May 1978: 5th Annual Meeting. Frank Watts elected as our second President.
October 1978: Society gained its 100th member, Sister Ambrose, a Roman Catholic nun. She was honoured by the gift of an ‘old man cactus’.
1979: Society’s first display in the Cuthbert Conservatory, the ‘sacred domain of the famed begonias’. In conjunction with Geelong Cactus Group, 700 plants displayed and the exhibition was extended a week by popular demand.
May 1980: Roger Jones elected our third President (served for 13 years). He had a passion for unusual plants and was an expert at growing plants from seed.
1982 Begonia Festival: A landscaped area created for the first time, with plants surrounded by scoria rocks, a sombrero-clad mannequin named Pedro, and a desert scene backdrop. Norman Markby, an artist member, supplied a drawing for the handbills, which became the Society logo.
Ballarat Botanical Gardens Conservatory display - 2003
16 February 1983, Ash Wednesday: Noel Main and Don Kay left Ballarat to speak on bromeliads at the Geelong Club. The increasingly scary bushfire smoke and wind persuaded them to turn back, but the road was now blocked by a huge fallen gum tree. A petrol tanker was rushing towards them from the other side…
May 1983: Life membership conferred on Arthur Bilston Sr and Noel Main.
August 1985: Rudolf Schulz gives the first of his annual lectures – on the aims and background of his nursery, Tarrington Exotics. Described in our Newsletter as ‘an exotic character with some fascinating explanations…first-rate entertainer’.
1986 Begonia Festival: Society very successfully sold pottery of ‘sleeping Mexicans’, initially made by McCallum House Sheltered Workshops, and then taken up by our resident member potters, Ted and Ilse Beulke, who called them ‘Lucky Pedros’.
April 1987: ‘Meeting started late with stampede to the sales table.’
Late 1987: Society members visited Kelaston House (home for the blind) with selected plants which could be safely touched.
September 1988: Prof. Desmond Cole, world authority on genus Lithops, talked to a full house of 100.
1989 Begonia Festival: Ron Lycette and Ron Barnacott created an award-winning Desert Diorama display with large plants, a truckload of rocks, a giant background mural and finishing touches of fissweed, curled mud and bleached bones.
30th Anniversary Party - 2003
6 October 1989: Dr Alfred Law gave a slide-illustrated lecture on South American Cacti as part of a world lecture tour.
1990 Begonia Festival: Society prepared a fun theme: ‘People are like their Plants – A Living Cartoon’, with plants positioned amongst nine life-sized cartoon figures representing tall and lanky, obese, ferocious, spiky, hairy, nude, contorted, hanging and climbing.
1990: Don Kay inaugurated the shocking, annual ‘Daggy Plant Competition’. Plants with an abnormal appearance sufficient to cause a gasp or gawk were encouraged.
1991: Maryborough Branch of the Ballarat Society formed, initially meeting in the Carisbrook home of Allan and Vi Monk.
April 1991: John Lavranos, a botanist with the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, who had collected 100,000 specimens, presented two lectures on Succulents of the Canary Islands and South-West Madagascar.
3 November 1991: Ballarat staged the inaugural ‘One Day Happening’ with speakers, Rudolf Schulz, Heinz Staude and Tom Kapitany, plant sales, plant competitions and a mastermind quiz between the Ballarat, Geelong and Melbourne Society Presidents.
February 1992: Society’s 200th Newsletter.
May 1992: Don Kay elected as the Society’s fourth President (and again in 1995).
November 1993: Jungle Cactus Night, with loan of slides and gift of cuttings by Des Ellery of the Epiphytic Cactus Society.
May 1994: Karen Bandy became Society’s fifth President.
May 1995: Ballarat Society the first group to use the new Robert Clark Centre meeting rooms and the first tenant group to display plants in the new Robert Clark Conservatory, a spectacular 13-metre tall glass structure. The 4th One Day Happening was held here on 2 April 1995, with speakers, Attila Kapitany, Max Holmes, Chris Larsen and Rudolf Schulz.
1996 Begonia Festival: Theme of ‘Follow the Rainbow – a Non-Stop Garden Party’. Noela and Jim Flynn worked hard to make the Society’s popular rainbow display with countless paper flowers and a ‘pot of gold nuggets’ at one end.
June 1997: Our South Australian member, Joyce Carr, a world authority on the hybridisation of epiphytic cacti, awarded the ‘Medal of the Order of Australia’.
3 November 1997: With the finish of the ‘One Day Happenings’, the first of the annual Tarrington Exotics Open Days held at Rudolf Schulz’s nursery in Teesdale.
December 1998: Ted and Ilse Beulke presented a video send-up of the Begonia Festival. ‘Ted’s interview with the [sculptures of the] Prime Ministers in the Avenue was a classic…’
May 1999: Joylene and Megan Sutherland elected as the new Newsletter editors. Joylene, a keen photographer, increased the size of the Newsletter to 8 pages.
May 2001: Society’s first web site provided courtesy of ‘The Courier’ newspaper.
September 2001: Second web site of Society hosted and maintained by Goldlinksweb, a Work for the Dole computer training scheme. Go to: www.goldlinksweb.com/cactus
September-October 2001 Winter Warmth Display: Society’s 5th display in the new conservatory. ‘The Cacti and Succulent Display was impressive and educational, as always with excellent public interaction.’
2002 Begonia Festival: Compact display of succulent plants, bromeliads in the Fernery, display boards with laminated photographs and David Morrison created a 130-image computer slide show.
30 March - 1 April 2002: First annual ‘Cactus and Succulent Collectors Get Together’ hosted by Ballarat at the Mid City Motel. Organised by Rudolf Schulz and Joylene Sutherland, about 70 attended the programme of 15 short talks plus field trips to collections, nurseries and the new arid garden at the Geelong Botanic Gardens.
December 2002: Christmas break up with Bill Morrison (aka Santa) organising auction and giveaways of plants from the Will Affection legacy, with proceeds to be used for purchase of new library books.
March 2003 Begonia Festival: The 26th occasion on which the Society has organised a display at the Festival.
9 May 2003: 30th Annual General Meeting. Ron Lycette presentation titled ‘Read Your Plants’. Noel Main retired as Secretary after 30 years and Doug Haddow stepped down as Librarian after a long period. Six new faces elected to the committee.
10 October 2003: Society’s 30 Years Anniversary Birthday Party held! Royal Horticultural Society of Victoria awards Noel Main the John Pascoe Faulkner Gold Medal for distinguished services to horticulture.
ROLLCALL OF PRESIDENTS ...
1973-1978 |
5 years |
ARTHUR A BILSTON SR |
1978-1979 |
1 year |
FRANK WATTS |
1979-1992 |
13 years |
ROGER JONES |
1992-1994 |
2 years |
DON KAY |
1994-1995 |
1 year |
KAREN BANDY |
1995-2004 |
9 years |
DON KAY |
2004 onward |
PHIL PARRY |
... AND SECRETARIES
Summary by Mark Moravec, based upon the extensive notes of Noel Main (Secretary 1973-2003), who was assisted by the records of Frank Watts (Newsletter Editor 1975-1998). Produced on the occasion of the 30th Anniversary Birthday Party of the Ballarat Cactus and Succulent Society.
© Ballarat Cactus & Succulent Society