Ross McKinnon AM
Ross McKinnon is the Curator-in-Charge of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens at suburban Mt Coot-tha. These gardens are internationally regarded as amongst the world’s leading sub-tropical Botanic Gardens and Brisbane’s second largest tourist attraction featuring significant plant collections, including the world's largest representative collection of Australian native rainforest trees.
Ross has a weekly gardening column, has hosted various television and radio gardening programs, is a Patron, Life or Honorary Member of 28 horticultural organisations and is a retired State Chairman and National Board Member of Australia’s Open Garden Scheme.
In 1993, Ross was awarded the inaugural Brisbane City Council Employee of the Year Award. In 1994 he was nominated as a Fellow of the Linnean Society – London.
In 1993, 1998, 2003 and 2008 Ross was appointed Chairman of the Council, Heads of Australian Botanic Gardens and on Australia Day 1999 awarded the Order of Australia for outstanding services to horticulture.
In 2005 Ross received an Inaugural Vitae Lampada (The Burning Torch of Life) Medal, for his consultant role to the Queensland Poisons Information Centre to Paediatricians within the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health based at the Royal Children’s Hospital and to doctors in the broader worlds of medicine in Queensland.
Ross was the guest in March 2010 on the ABC National radio broadcast The Conversation Hour talking about the importance of the Botanic Gardens in today’s world. Repeated in July that year, the program has propelled Ross’s public speaking profile.