Horticulturalist & student - Julie Paul

I tried various office jobs but never really liked them, so I went back to what I had always wanted to study horticulture. Now I work with native plants and animals around me all day, in a place where there are birds everywhere, frogs in the ponds and water dragons in summer.

At the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra, I help maintain computer records of all the Australian native plants we grow, where they were collected and how well they are doing in the Gardens here. My work includes mapping garden beds and collecting fruit, flowers, seeds and leaves for botanists to identify.

Our aim is to provide accurate information to staff, visiting researchers and the general public so they know which plants are growing in what areas of the Gardens.

My work gives me the opportunity to travel all over Australia collecting plants and working with people from other botanic gardens. In 1996, while I was doing some work at the Jervis Bay Botanic Gardens in NSW, I was fortunate to be able to attend the handover ceremony when Jervis Bay National Park was returned to the Aborigines.

The people I work with are knowledgeable and enthusiastic about gardening in general and native Australian plants in particular. They know a lot about where to go bushwalking and camping, what time of year is best and what you might see there.

My favourite Australian native plants are native daisies and brown boronia, which I grow near my front door for its beautiful scent.

I am still studying part-time for my Certificate in Horticulture, learning to identify plants and plant pests and drive tractors and other machinery. After I have finished the Certificate, I want to keep studying because there is so much to learn.

"Science Futures" was produced by Wisenet with the aid of a grant from the Department of Industry, Science and Tourism Science and Technology Awareness Program.