Many APS members will remember Roger Starling who was an APS (NSW) board member as well as North Shore Group and Northern Beaches Group member. A family member informed APS of the passing of our valued member Roger Starling at Northern Beaches Hospital just before his 96th Birthday in July 2025. Roger was an enthusiastic member, active participant and past President of the Northern Beaches group. Roger was a member of the APSNSG committee and served as APS NSG delegate to APS (NSW) for several years. He quietly, yet fully committed, and supported both groups in many ways. Eventually he could not continue his attendance at group meetings because of a number of medical conditions and no longer being able to drive.
He lived in a retirement village in Frenchs Forest, where he arranged the Northern Beaches meetings when the Stony Range pavilion was under repair. Roger worked for many hours on Wednesdays every week at the APS(NSW) office at Constitution Hill Old Toongabbie. These were the days (pre-computer) when much time and energy was applied to the APS (NSW) organisation. Roger also ran liaison activities with Ryde TAFE Horticultural College. He worked as a volunteer for Lifeline in Manly.
On 5 May 2022 APS (NSW) gave Roger an award for his invaluable and long service.
ROGER’S PROFILE PUBLISHED IN CALEYI SEPTEMBER 2016
I lived in the country in England. My mother was a keen gardener and always went to The Chelsea Flower Show and the kids in the family were dragooned into helping in the garden. None of us showed much appreciation for this activity at the time. However, I later became apprenticed in a pharmacy and started college in this capacity and at the time all the products we used were galenicals (products produced from plants all named in botanical Latin so I have never had any problems with the names of flora and fauna). In 1974 my wife and I decided to come to Australia mainly because my daughter got married and her husband got a job with Qantas and I had just quit running a public house so we decided to join them with the rest of my children. I was quite ignorant of the vegetation of the country and believed that Australia was coast to coast covered with Eucalyptus but soon learned differently. After a time, I retired and my son purchased a seed company and asked me to run it for him, mainly I believe to prevent me from getting bored, and I agreed. After 2 years I decided that though I had become quite familiar with the seeds of native plants I still did not know what came out of them and at age 70 decided to take a course in horticulture at Ryde TAFE and finished a diploma course in Nursery management. The business came with a comprehensive library of botanical and gardening books. I also inherited a large number of journals of the organisation now known as the Australian Plants Society which I subsequently joined at Stony Range and of which I became President until I moved to Dural when I also joined the North Shore Group.