Volunteering has always been a part of my life. I grew up in a family that cared for individuals with special needs. I was involved in their care, helping them craft, cook and socialise on weekends and school holidays. From the age of 16 - 18 years I was a volunteer at the only domestic violence women’s shelter in Adelaide, teaching a weekly art therapy class and assisting with the school holiday program.

I continue to dedicate my time to various environmental and community-driven projects, including:

✔ Volunteering once a week at a local op-shop fixing jewellery, helping to sort donations from our community and diverting materials from landfill.

✔ Volunteering once a month for Bushcare in the Cremorne Point area. Prior to European settlement, the North Sydney region was covered by a diverse bushland habitat (13). Today, less than 4% of the original bushland remains and it is vulnerable to ongoing urban pressures (13). Protecting and restoring the native vegetation is critical to the survival of native flora and fauna such as eucalypts, banksia, she-oak, pittosporum undulatum, sandstone foreshore scrub, flannel flowers, native grasses, tawny frogmouths, water dragons and white browed scrubwrens. Bush regeneration emerged in the 1960s from the work of Mosman residents Joan and Eileen Bradley, who pioneered the systemised approach that we know today (14).

References

(13). Smith, P. & Simth, J. (2010). ‘North Sydney Council Natural Area Survey’, North Sydney Council Report, September 2010. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340775998_North_Sydney_Council_Natural_Area_Survey_report_to_North_Sydney_Council

(14). Mosman Parks & Bushland Association. (2025). ‘Joan and Eileen Bradley developed the Bradley Method of bush regeneration’, Mosman Parks & Bushland Association, April 2025. Available at: https://www.mosmanparksandbushland.org/the-bradley-sisters