Issue 51 Aurora Magazine October 2022

cultivate
PROFESSOR STEPHEN HOPPER
Eminent Biologist and Public Gardener Extraordinaire
STORY SERENA KIRBY | PHOTOS SERENA KIRBY
As I step into Stephen Hopper’s office it’s hard not to be distracted by what’s inside.
It’s an Aladdin’s Cave of all the things he loves. Hundreds of books are neatly arranged,
and categorised by country, on shelves that wrap around the room and stretch from
floor to ceiling. There’s ancient fossilised Banksia wood, gum nut samples with little
handwritten tags and rows of red-bound journals filled with tiny samples of plants held
in place by ‘magic tape’.
But when this leading WA scientist starts to speak about his life and his work there is no
distraction at all; my eyes and ears are focussed solely on him.
He starts by telling me to call him Steve.
“Only my mother called me Stephen,” he says with a chuckle before starting our chat in
earnest.
“When I started at university I wanted to study physics but I failed my first year so I
switched to biology instead. It’s certainly something I have never regretted,” he says.
And nor should he as Steve is now Professor of Biodiversity at the Centre of Excellence
in Natural Resource Management and School of Biological Sciences at UWA’s Albany
campus. His list of honours and awards is long and prestigious and includes Australia’s
highest civilian honour, the Companion of the Order of Australia. He was awarded this
for his ‘eminent service as a global science leader in the field of plant conservation
biology, particularly in the delivery of world class research programs contributing to the
conservation of endangered species and ecosystems’. He has also been inducted into
WA’s Science Hall of Fame.
“Conservation biology is the area I’ve been most involved in. But I’m also trained in the
fields of evolution, ecology, pollination anthropology, phylogenetics and taxonomy.”
Steve says without fanfare as my note-taking struggles to keep up.
And if my mind isn’t spinning enough already Steve adds that he’s also written eight
books and published more than 350 scientific papers.
But despite all his academic accomplishments this dedicated scientist has never been
one to lock himself away in his office for too long nor has he refrained from taking side
steps when other career opportunities present themselves.
“You can be doing a lot of good quality science but it can have little effect on
government policy. So when the opportunity came along to head up Perth’s Kings Park
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