The Plant Science Internship Program was one of my life's great joys. We learned vast amounts about Australian plants, botany, ecology, herbarium curation, plant identification and taxonomy. It lasted for seven weeks, full-time, and included a field trip to the Central Coast of New South Wales, and to the Botanic Gardens at Mount Annan.

Nine of us participated, all students or recent students. We were a diverse group, but got along famously. I'm happy to say that I have made what I think might be lifelong friends among the students and Herbarium staff.

The Interns.

One of the many canyons of herbarium boxes.
The Herbarium houses over 1 million preserved
plant specimens. 

The main staff members who looked after us were:

Bob Makinson, Australia's foremost authority on the Grevillea genus.

Louisa Murray, Collections Manager and Acting Resources Manager (but she's too shy to have her photo on the Herbarium website).

Kathi Downs, Curator, who also seems to be without a pic.

And Dr Barry Conn, Principal Research Scientist. He's not shy at all.

All great people, and deeply keen to share their deep keenness. 

With luck, the Internship Program will be offered again next year. If you're interested, you really should apply!

As of August this year, I'll be working at the Herbarium three days a week, working on Australia's Virtual Herbarium.
You can read about it here.