For almost ten years after moving to Western Australia, I didn’t really understand Kings Park.

I’d visit for the beautiful views across the Swan River and the city skyline, but the gardens themselves left me a little underwhelmed. Compared to the grand botanical gardens I’d visited elsewhere, there were no sweeping displays of colourful flowers.

Instead, there was bushland.

It wasn’t until much later that I realised that was exactly what made it so extraordinary.

Western Australia is home to one of the richest collections of plant life in the world. The south-west of our state is recognised internationally as a biodiversity hotspot, with thousands of plant species found nowhere else on Earth. Kings Park celebrates this remarkable flora, bringing together the largest collection of Western Australian native plants in one place while protecting large areas of natural bushland.

Back then, though, I didn’t know any of that.

To me, a eucalyptus was simply… a eucalyptus.

Everything changed during a walk through Kings Park with an artist friend in 2018.

As we wandered through the Western Australian Botanic Garden, she stopped beneath a flowering Eucalyptus pyriformis.

“Have you ever seen one of these?” she asked.

I hadn’t.

Standing beneath those deep crimson blossoms, I suddenly realised I’d been walking past these incredible trees for years without ever noticing them.

A little further along the path, another tree grabbed my attention..

It was a Eucalyptus macrocarpa.

Its enormous silver-blue leaves framed velvety crimson flowers dusted with golden pollen. It was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. A flower as big as my head!

Not long afterwards, I painted my first Australian native flower.

I called it Emergence.

Looking back, the name seems strangely fitting. That painting marked the beginning of a completely new direction in my work. It was later licensed as part of John Sands’ Our Australia greeting card collection, but its greatest gift was introducing me to the extraordinary beauty of Australia’s native flora.

Since then, I’ve painted many species, but the graceful Silver Princess (Eucalyptus caesia) has become one of my favourites. Every flower has its own personality, and every season offers something new to discover.

These days, I still walk through Kings Park with my camera.

Sometimes I come home with hundreds of photographs.

Sometimes just one.

But I’ve learned that one photograph can become a painting, and one moment of noticing can change the way you see the world.

I often think about the person I was when I first arrived in Western Australia, wondering what everyone else loved about Kings Park.

Now I understand.

Kings Park didn’t change.

I did.