Banks, David Paul (1965 - )

David P. Banks from Sydney, Australia has been growing orchids for over 30 years, having started at the age of five. He is a Past President of the Orchid SPECIES Society of New South Wales, Past President (at the age of 20) and a Life Member of the Parramatta and District Orchid Society and also served two terms as Vice President of the Orchid Society of New South Wales. David has served on the Council of the Australasian Native Orchid Society (and was bestowed Life Membership from ANOS in 2002), the Committee of the Orchid Society of New South Wales, and was one of its representatives on the Ira Butler Trophy Committee - which recognises significant developments in Australian native orchids and their hybrids. He also served a period as Patron of the Launceston Orchid Society in Tasmania.

David was a qualified orchid judge (1988-2007) with the OSNSW as well as the Australian Orchid Council. He is the current Editor of the Australian Orchid Review (from 1999) and served a six-year term as Editor of The Orchadian - the journal of the Australasian Native Orchid Society, from 1996 to 2002, overseeing two volumes. David has had over 150 papers relating to orchids published since 1980. In 1998, David was also appointed Editor of the series - Australian Orchid Research, the scientific publication of the Australian Orchid Foundation. He is also a member of the Australian Orchid Foundation, an elite organisation with restricted membership (100), after being invited to join. After accepting an invitation in late 1998, David also joined the newly formed ‘Orchid Specialist Group’ of the IUCN (The World Conservation Union) Species Survival Commission, being one of only four Australian delegates. This organisation’s headquarters are at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the United Kingdom. He is also a Research Associate of the Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research - in conjunction with the Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra.

David has written many articles for Orchids Australia, where he served five years as Editorial Consultant, and his acclaimed photographs continue to appear in this and other domestic and international journals, as well as a number of books. Over 1000 of his images have been published to date. David is also one of the major photographers featured in the new reference book, Orchids of the PhilIippines by Jim Cootes, where over 120 of his images are showcased. He has also served on the Publications Committee for the Australian Orchid Council. Recently, he has also contributed orchid features to Australia’s popular Your Garden and Burke’s Backyard magazines.

David lectures extensively throughout Australia and overseas at various workshops, society meetings and Orchid Conferences. He has already conducted eight successful international lecture tours, the most extensive being in April-May 1999, after accepting an invitation to the USA and Canada. This was in conjunction with the World Orchid Conference in Vancouver, Canada, where he presented a paper on “Australian Sarcochilus Species and their Hybrids”. He undertook lecture tours of the USA in May 2001 and July 2001, including four dates in Hawaii. David also regularly appeared on a number of television networks and radio stations, both in Australia and the USA, promoting orchids, and has been seen on Australia’s top-rating Burke’s Backyard. David and his father Graeme, who is a Past President of the Australian Orchid Council and Past President and Registrar of Judges of the Orchid Society of New South Wales, trade as Hills District Orchids. They have a large collection of many different genera, with an extensive catalogue of species orchids from around the world. David P. Banks’ first book, Tropical Orchids of Southeast Asia, was published in 1999. Another book, Growing Orchids, published by Kangaroo Press (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) was released in August 2001. The first of a planned series of four books — Orchids of Australia, Volume 1 by John J. Riley and David P. Banks was released in October 2002, being published by University of New South Wales Press.

Source: David Paul Banks, pers com 2002
Portrait Photo: dust-jacket flap, Orchids of Australia by Riley and Banks, 2002