Almost fifteen years ago, the federal and Western Australian Government set up a program to look after not only the state’s lands and waters, but the plants and animals that live within them. Craig Wilson works for this program – Perth NRM* – and his particular focus is on the coastal and marine areas south [...]
Skope
KEEPING IT CALM
Imagine that you are the Property Manager at a high school and that daily, you and your team have to be ready to deal with an astonishingly broad set of requests. From the routine (sweeping paths), to the one-off (landscaping the new gym precinct), or even the last minute (setting up for a function), it’s [...]
WADING THROUGH THE STINKY STUFF
If you stop to think about it, thanks to environmental consultants, our landscapes are green and robust. And that’s probably thanks not only to the environmental specialist’s skills but also a generally held understanding - that it’s our responsibility to support Mother Nature. Whether that’s through restoring the living balance after a project’s been completed, [...]
CLEVER THINKING ON A SERIOUS SLOPE
For David Eccleston, it was a moment sitting on a surfboard in Sydney’s Freshwater Bay, that tipped him towards a career in environmental management. And think again if you imagine he was inspired by the iconic setting, or the glorious rainstorm overhead. No - it was the sight of Sydney’s rubbish surging out through the [...]
MAKING THE TOWN GLITTER
There are plenty of places around Australia where it’s a challenge to make the ‘greening’ happen. Which means that to be an effective landscaper in this country you must be honest about the local conditions: the poor soils, the ferocious summers, the scarcity of water. If you top this honesty with knowing your stuff, you [...]
MAKING LIFE BALANCE
Two years ago, when Robert Murray walked through the Penrhos College gates for the first time, he didn’t realise then that this school would become not only a big part of his life, but at the same time give him more life at home... The story begins in Perth where he was born and raised. [...]
PROFIT WITH A PURPOSE
For the last 25 years, Workpower in Western Australia has been creating opportunities for people with disability. It’s an organisation that does an extraordinary job of making a difference to those who benefit from its support. And while it provides traditional support services, it also operates a range of social enterprises across Perth, employing over [...]
BUILDING A GOOD TEAM
If a business is ticking along nicely, it’s often thanks to the obvious: good demand, good staff, good relationships with clients. And while these factors may be ‘duhh’ to most of us, it never hurts to wave them around every now and then as a reminder of where we should probably be heading. Take Horizon [...]
THE ROSE WHISPERER
Perched on the Swan River escarpment at Claremont in Perth is a college for young ladies that’s surrounded by roses. Standing like a queen, at its centre is the same building that opened its doors to students in 1908. More than 100 years later, it’s surrounded by the modern school grounds necessary to service the [...]
THIS WAS ONCE, THIS
Some of the landscapes we’re familiar with might not be what they seem. We assume they’re natural – stable coastal dunes, sweeps of banksia woodland, healthily diverse wetlands. And much of the time they are relatively untouched. But sometimes they aren’t. Many high conservation value wetlands, and highly disturbed coastal dune systems around Perth and [...]
