Career objectives
Developing and delivering collaborative projects with a range of stakeholders within a horticultural research and design context
Education based environmental projects
Creative horticultural and broader environmental projects
Repair, rehabilitation and remediation of degraded environments through collaborative horticultural and creative practice
Enabling and facilitating communities in conservation and land management projects
Raise the profile of environmental issues and assist groups confronting them with the provision of relatable and reliable horticultural and land management information and other resources
Ideas / interests
Environmental project frameworks that enable and support
Sustainable plant propagation
Environmental project work of international communities
Intentional communities
Being able to make a half decent meal with what’s growing in your immediate area
Sustainable development
History is not so much a study of the past. It’s an examination of the how, where and why of the present.
“The one who plants trees, knowing that he will never sit in their shade, has at least started to understand the meaning of life.”
Rabindranath Tagore.
Polymath, poet and writer 1861 - 1941)
ROD HAWKSWORTH
Garden Obsessive, Rogue Plantsman and Hack Writer
Narrm (Melbourne), Victoria
Rodney John Hawksworth has been working with plants since the late twentieth century and researching and writing about them for almost as long.
In 2002 he was given the opportunity to write for Lost Publishing with writer Andrew Masterson and partner, graphic designer Sahm Keily. During Rod’s time with Lost Publishing he researched and wrote a regular history column and a gardening column where he wrote on everything from the pros and cons of mulching, bedding plants and using native plants in landscaping. This was the impetus behind Rod returning to study a Diploma in Conservation and Land Management at the University of Ballarat in 2005.
Within days of completing his Diploma in Conservation and Land Management in 2006 he gained an entry level position with Victoria’s Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) as a forest fire fighter at the Department’s Daylesford office. Demonstrating an excellent working knowledge of native forest silviculture and a willingness to work anywhere, he secured a position as a Bushfire Recovery Silviculture Officer where he played a critical role in the reforestation of Victorian Alpine areas burnt over the summer of 2006 – 2007. In addition to his forest management duties, Rod researched and wrote a great many articles, primarily about the Department’s bushfire recovery activities, native forest silviculture and the relationships that exist between rural communities and the bush.
Since finishing with the DSE in 2008, Rod has worked on vegetation management and planting contracts for VicRoads, VicTrack, Zoos Victoria and occasionally returns on a seasonal basis to train forest fire fighters for Parks Victoria and the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning. In addition to this he has worked for Lonely Planet Publishing and the BBC as a Digital Content Producer. Unfortunately there was no overseas (or domestic) travel with Lonely Planet or the BBC; he did however have a very comfortable desk and ergonomic chair in a very nice office in Melbourne’s inner west.
Rod has worked in film and television production in research, construction, unit services, locations, transport and, on occasion, electronic press kits.
Rod is the consulting horticulturalist at Melbourne’s free open-air art space, Testing Grounds and prefers the title gardener to consulting horticulturalist. If he is not getting his hands dirty at Testing Grounds, he is probably cursing inappropriate plantings and garden centres attached to chain hardware stores, researching unconventional gardening techniques and writing – very rarely about himself in the third person.
When he is not working Rod is usually with his three sons and his partner Katrina; he refers to these four people as the four best things about him.
“The one who plants trees, knowing that he will never sit in their shade, has at least started to understand the meaning of life.”
Rabindranath Tagore.
Polymath, poet and writer 1861 - 1941)
Contact Information:
Email: rodhawksworth@gmail.com
Instagram: @rodhawksworth
Twitter: @rodhawksworth