Why?

Why I Created Frogwood Arboretum

I believe that we live at a very fortunate time in Australia's history.

And I believe that much of that good fortune has been built on the sacrifices that previous generations have made on our behalf.

I am talking here not only of the sacrifices made by Australians in uniform, but of the sacrifices made by ordinary Australians from all walks of life; the teachers and the farmers, the miners and the scientists, the labourers and the fence post diggers. 

I think about the early settlers who used hand held axes to turn Australia’s tough, knotty-wooded, gum trees into fence posts. About how they had to dig the fence post holes into the hard unforgiving ground in an Australian summer, all the while knowing that the fences that they were building could, and often were, reduced to ash in the next bushfire. There were not many fancy restaurants to dine out in or glasses of chilled wine to drink at the end of a hard days work for these people.

 And I think about how many people over the last 200 years have volunteered their time, sitting through endless committee meetings, listening to other people ramble on about irrelevant matters, simply because they believed that through their commitment they could help make Australia a better place.   

We now live lives of relative ease and comfort, and yet I am not sure that the sacrifices made on our behalf are fully acknowledged.

With Frogwood Arboretum I am trying to create something as beautiful and as long lasting as I can. Something that will, in my own way, show the respect and affection I have for the Australians that came before me, and my appreciation for the sacrifices that they have made on my behalf.