Dana Wortley, the Member for Torrens in the State Parliament, presented the Volunteer Award for Outstanding Service on behalf of the Kildare College Community to Les Nesbitt.
Les Nesbitt has been interested in native orchids for more than 40 years as a propagator, hybridiser, judge and exhibitor.
He is the custodian of 20 hectares of bushland in the Adelaide hills containing 29 orchid species.
Les was the inaugural president of the Native Orchid Society of South Australia and is an accredited judge of both native and exotic orchids.
Since 1975 he has run Nesbitt's Orchids, a nursery specialising in propagating Australian deciduous terrestrial orchids for growers everywhere.
For three years running Les has run the weekly Science Orchid Club workshops during a lunchtime.
Each series of workshop is carefully planned by Les and nearly always involves students being actively involved in either propagating, dividing, maintaining or treating both native and exotic orchid species.
Each workshop, on average, is attended by 14 students. Over three years over 75 students have participated in at least one of Les’ lunchtime workshops.
Les has entered orchids grown by students of Kildare College in numerous competitions and has been instrumental in Kildare College winning many awards. This year alone Kildare has won 15 awards for our orchids.
Les also oversees the Kildare orchid shade house during the holidays and ensures the plants are in good care when the students are on holidays.
Les has also assisted in the implementation of plant ecology into the science curriculum.
Each year, Les leads the Science Orchid Club members on a field trip to survey local wild native orchids.
Les also mentors the Enlight students (inclusive education group – extension group) in propagating threatened terrestrial orchids in collaboration with scientists from the Adelaide Botanic Gardens
