Coleby-Williams, Jerry   (fl. 1982 as a plant collector in WA)

Coleby-Williams was born in London.

Initially trained with the Royal Horticultural Society, and in management with Brunel University, some years later he emerged from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, qualified in 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. Collecting and photographing plants never photographed before and discovering Darwinia polychroma, a new and critically endangered species, changed his life. 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".

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.

In 2003 he moved to Brisbane, Queensland in order to establish a sustainable house and garden in collaboration with Jeff Poole. This house - "Bellis" - provides a model for ways in which urban Western citizens can reduce their ecological footprint, and adapt to climate change and peak oil.

Coleby-Williams is extensively involved in publishing about gardening in Australia. He is the horticultural editor of Organic Gardener magazine. He was also the consultant for content and one of the writers of the book, Gardening Australia - Flora: the gardener's bible.

Source: Extracted from:
https://jerry-coleby-williams.net/about/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Coleby-Williams
Portrait Photo: 1982, extracted from: https://jerry-coleby-williams.net/2012/09/22/farewell-friends/

Collecting localities for 'Coleby-Williams, J.' from AVH (2022)

Data from 167 specimens in 1982