Community
11 November, 2024
Bye, bye green thumb
KNOWN for her green thumbs and her passion for the community, Louisa Grandy is retiring from Cairns Regional Council after 25 years of growing a community of volunteer horticulturists, gardeners and friends.
The council’s volunteer coordinator started as a gardener at the Cairns Botanic Gardens and is credited with inspiring the community to step up and do more for the city while connecting with other residents through the Green Space, Our Place Program.
What started with two volunteers and Ms Grandy as program coordinator in 2009 with the now Down ‘n’ Dirty gardening group, branched out into the extremely successful Green Space, Our Place Program which has over 300 volunteers and eight supervised groups aiming to improve the green spaces in Cairns.
Dozens of volunteers and colleagues gathered to say goodbye to Ms Grandy – who’s retiring to spend more time with her family in Victoria – last Friday at Jess Mitchell Park.
“I’d like to thank the Friends of the Botanic Gardens for their support, to the original Down ‘n’ Dirties who supported me when I got this role, I thank all the council staff and the Green team. We couldn’t have done it without all of you,” Ms Grandy said in her goodbye speech.
“It wasn’t a light decision but it was a definite true feeling that it was time (to step back). The vision of connecting people with people and people with nature has far exceeded my expectations, so thank you everyone for supporting me.”
Green Space, Our Place program, which is the brainchild of Ms Grandy and colleague Sarah Gosling, is now 10 years old. At one stage it had 1000 volunteers and has expanded into eight groups, such as the Catanna Wetlands.
“Louisa just has this lovely way about her, she’s not pushy, she’s endlessly positive, the absolute perfect person to run a group of volunteers,” said a founding member of the Down ‘n Dirty gardening group Lee Ross.
“We all love her, she’ll ask ‘Who wants to cut bamboo? Or who wants to weed?’. She adapts to what you know, and she’s a brilliant gardener. We learn heaps, her biggest thing was how can you finesse something, make it perfect,” she said.
Division 7 councillor Anna Middleton said Ms Grandy’s impact on the community was unmeasurable. “You just have to walk around and talk to the people about how, once they interact with Louisa, they feel this real commitment to improving the community that we live in and that’s why I think this program is so successful,” she said.
