More than park life – Australia Day honours 2021

ON a warm Monday morning in the lush Buninyong Botanical Gardens, Lorraine Powell sits on a bench and explains her motivation behind working to protect and improve spaces like the one she currently finds herself in.

“This is a place where everybody meets,” she said. “This is a common ground for all of us. These public open spaces, if you don’t have people advocating for them, and particularly with botanical gardens, they will quickly revert to just being ordinary parks.

“These aren’t ordinary parks, they embody the cultural, the historical, the scientific aspects of our community.”

It’s that dedication to public spaces and culture that’s behind her being awarded a Medal in the Order of Australia.

Not that as an individual honour the award seems to sit well with her.

“I’m not a very remarkable person, so I was a bit gobsmacked,” Ms Powell said. “I’ve not done anything by myself, it’s always been with lots of other people who are in a common world doing something that is all of ours.

“If an award is given to me, it can be given to dozens of people, because I can see inspiration all around the place.”

She is honestly humble about the achievement, but some might say it’s well deserved as over the years Ms Powell has made significant contributions to Buninyong and the wider Ballarat region.

Along with holding office with the Friends of Buninyong Botanic Gardens, the Friends of Ballarat Botanic Gardens, Keep Ballarat Beautiful, and the Victorian branch of Australian Garden History Society, she’s also volunteer guide at the Art Gallery of Ballarat, works with Buninyong Film Festival, a volunteer and judge for Tidy Towns Victoria, and a volunteer at the Ballarat International Foto Biennale.

It’s an extensive list that reflects Ms Powell’s willingness to give her time and effort.

“You’ve got a choice in life, don’t you?” she asked rhetorically. “You can either sleep in a community, or you can live in it, and if you live in a community you sort of have to do stuff.

“There’s a lot of people out there doing things I could never do. So I guess you do what you can do.”