A skill in drawing and observation, and a deep love of
the bush was combined in one woman to create the beginnings
of a community resource. It began when Janet Cosh, from the
Southern Highlands, left her collection of pressed plant specimens
and drawings to the University of Wollongong. Together with
a monetary contribution, Janet asked that a regional herbarium
be formed and the Janet Cosh Herbarium was born.
When I arrived in the early 1990s, it was a collection of
boxes in a cupboard, with one botanist carefully checking
and cataloguing each specimen. Despite her skills, the progress
was slow, as she was only part-time. Over the next decade
we worked hard to expand the collection, house it properly
and develop a structure that would ensure the integrity and
long-term growth of a herbarium that would provide a service
to the community. This firm footing has provided a framework
to expand the contribution of the herbarium to the community
and an expertise rarely matched in a regional area.
Janet Cosh provided important knowledge to those who needed
information about the local bush. Like Janet, the herbarium
seeks to underpin the needs of local land owners, councils
and the community by providing expertise and knowledge about
our flora. As part of the university, it is at the cutting
edge of research and is able to contribute to the training
of botanists. Like Janet, it seeks to deliver this in a scientific
as well as an aesthetic and historical context.
Janet left us with a germ of an idea. We have made a solid
beginning. It is time to ripen the concept and provide the
South Coast and Southern Highlands with a valuable resource.
We hope Janet's vision of a regional herbarium accessible
to all and contributing to environmental conservation can
be accomplished. We hope you will be a part of this development.
ASSOCIATE
PROFESSOR KRISTINE FRENCH
HERBARIUM DIRECTOR |
