Sixty years ago, the Casino & District Orchid Society was formed. The only surviving founding member Gary McAteer, 83, was celebrating the 60th anniversary with orchid society members and exhibitors at St Mark's Anglican Hall, Casino today, Friday, September 26. Gary has been growing orchids for a long time.
"I used to play football and go to the surf club, but I got hurt," he said. He was asked to deliver magazines to a shed in Casino. "I had to walk through the shed and they had orchids growing. They gave me one." That was enough to spark Gary's interest.
He joined up with fellow orchid enthusiasts and it was Sid Smith who put an ad in the paper advertising their first meeting at the ambulance station on July 10, 1965. From there the orchids and the society bloomed.
Gary said there are 33,000 species of orchid and that didn't include the hybrids. His favourite is the Cattleya, an orchid originating from Brazil. At the exhibition at the hall today, there were 235 plants. They were colourful, diverse and their fragrance wafted into the air.
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