Murray Fagg: sale of books benefits Friends and Gardens

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Murray Fagg
Murray Fagg

Murray Fagg retired from the Gardens staff in 2012 after a long and outstanding career in native plant horticulture. At retirement, Murray was the Manager of the Botanical Information Group at the Gardens and the Gardens website.

Amongst his many accomplishments Murray was the author of widely recognized reference books on native plants and the source of a great many of the photographs of native plants in the ANBG Australian Plant Image Index. He has published a range of botanical-horticultural books in collaboration with John Wrigley, starting with Australian Native Plants in 1979, now in its fifth edition. His line illustrations and photographs are used throughout these books. He has also published directories of Australian botanic gardens. Most recently he has published, with John Wrigley, a biological/social-history book on the eucalypts.

Following his retirement, Murray culled his personal reference book collection and very generously donated about 100 such books to the Friends of ANBG to raise funds for the Gardens. A sale of these books was held on 13 April in conjunction with the Growing Friends plant sale. An active member of the Friends, Mike Johnson, put a lot of time into listing the books and organizing the sale.

This sale, based on Murray’s generous gesture, has raised approximately $1200 for the Friends. This will be invested in projects at the gardens supported by the Friends. There are a small number of books remaining (see list). If anyone is interested in these remaining books please contact us at info@friendsanbg.org.au with an offer.

The Friends wish to thank Murray Fagg for his generous support, not only in relation to the books but over many years and continuing in his retirement. The contribution of Mike Johnson to organize the sale is also greatly appreciated.