Jerry Coleby-Williams
Inspired by his family of gardeners and farmers Jerry has been gardening since the age of four.
Initially trained with the Royal Horticultural Society, some years later he emerged from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the world’s foremost botanic garden, qualified in management, curation, horticultural estate management, soft landscape design, horticultural and botanical sciences.
In 1982 Kew awarded Jerry a scholarship to study the flora of Western Australia. "It changed my life," says Jerry. Captivated by the people, plants and places, he decided to emigrate. "The greatest impact was realising that bushland I visited had been pretty much unspoiled by industry - something that no European can ever experience in their native lands".
What you should know
Name:
Jeremy Andrew Coleby-Williams
Occupation:
Horticulturist, curator
TRAINED At:
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
FAVOURITE JOB:
Nursery Foreman
FAVOURITE MAGAZINE
The Gardeners’ Chronicle
FAVOURITE BOOK:
‘The Gardeners’ Assistant’ by William Watson
favourite tv series:
‘The Victorian Kitchen Garden’ (BBC);
‘The Victorian Flower Garden’ (BBC);
‘Doctor Who’ (BBC);
FAVOURITE HOLIDAY LOCATION
Western Australia
obsessions
Trad jazz, home grown food, drinking rainwater, seedsaving, Western Australian wildflowers
Biography
Post-graduate work included management of both public and private sector horticultural enterprises in Britain and Australia: production nurseries, London’s largest public tree service, heritage inner city parks and gardens, running a major garden centre, and helping to establish Sydney's Mt Annan Botanic Garden, a Bicentenary project.
Jerry has been the horticultural consultant for the proposed management of bushland weeds on Lord Howe Island and several Sydney city renovation projects, including Darling Park, Victoria Park, the Conservatorium of Music, Macquarie Square, the NSW Police Memorial, Central Station, St Mary's Cathedral, First Fleet Park, East Circular Quay and the Sydney International Airport.
For over eleven years, Jerry managed the botanical estate at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, (Sydney Gardens) Australia’s oldest scientific organisation and the arboretum at Government House, Sydney. His greatest gardening challenge was grooming the Sydney Gardens (1999 - 2000) in readiness for hosting some of the Olympic Games. Janet Holmes à Court, commended the gardens for looking the best ever in thirty years she had known them. Jerry supported the creation of major educational gardens such as the Sydney Fernery (1993), Herb Garden (1995), Oriental Garden (1998) and the First Encounters Garden (2000). His plan of management for the Pesticide Facility and shift towards organic pest management have been adopted by the Brisbane and Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens.
Managing the 'Rare and Threatened Plants Garden' from concept to completion (1996 - 1998) was a personal high point in Jerry's years at the Sydney Gardens. "It doesn’t just explain what biodiversity means, it identifies which human activities are responsible for species losses and how ordinary people can help avert damage to our society and our quality of life". Jerry will always treasure preparing and planting the world's first Wollemi Pine at the launch.
During 2001, Jerry was seconded to be the horticultural consultant for the inaugural 'ABC Gardening Australia Live’ NSW exposition. This was the first successful gardening expo ever held in Sydney city attracting exhibits from commercial gardening shows, international exhibitors and the largest show garden of native plants ever seen in Australia.
Jerry is always busy sharing his knowledge of gardening through writing for the ‘Gardening Australia’ and ‘The Organic Gardener’ magazines and was a consultant and writer for the illustrated dictionary of garden plants, ‘Flora’.
He has been a presenter on our only national television gardening show, ‘Gardening Australia’ for eight years. He was a regular guest on Sydney's 702 talk back radio gardening show for seven years.
Jerry is in regular demand as a public speaker and horticultural judge. In 2002 Jerry represented Australia at the South Pacific Herbs Forum (Vanuatu), and presented a paper at the Australian Institute of Horticulture’s National Conference. In 2002 - 03 he supported the community education programme for Hunters Hill Council’s Tarban Bay Revegetation Project and presented a paper for the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects National Conference. In 2006 Jerry presented a series of lectures on pioneering sustainability in Queensland for the Queensland Museum and MECU Credit Union.
In November 2003 Jerry moved to Brisbane to create a sustainable house and garden: having ‘talked the talk’ he intended to ‘walk the walk’. His garden first took part in the Australian Open Garden Scheme in 2007.
Jerry is a ‘horticultural schizophrenic’ equally at home sipping tea in a high Victorian conservatory or manuring an allotment. As a Guerilla Gardener he grows native and productive trees to plant in barren public open spaces.
“Anyone who loves English plants, landscapes and weather, should be utterly besotted with their Australian counterparts”.
