Volunteer

Have you considered extending your experience, learning new skills and enriching your life by becoming involved as a volunteer with the National Trust?

Help us to conserve and interpret Western Australia's unique heritage by undertaking a regular volunteer commitment!

If you are interested read about some of our volunteers below and fill in our online form.

You could say Keith Jarvis is overqualified for his position as volunteer guide at the National Trust of Australia (WA)ís No 1 Pump Station at Mundaring Weir.

After all, he was second engineer at not one, but two of the eight steam pumping stations along the 560 km length of the pipeline built to supply water to the eastern goldfields.
So, in addition to unofficial odd jobs such as mowing the lawn and changing lightbulbs and batteries, Keith is able to give visitors to the 1902 building a first-hand account of the operations of a steam-powered station.

Keith knows No 1's horizontal triple-expansion engine well and, to the great admiration of his colleagues, is able to explain how the high-duty attachment worked. Keith saw an ad when the Trust took over No 1 and is one of the original volunteers who have kept it open to the public since 2004.

Photo by Acorn Photographic Agency.

Wardens at Wonnerup

Fancy free retirees Graham and Margaret Dunn travelled to Western Australia from South Australia in 2007 and fell in love with the south west.

They discovered the wonders of Wonnerup on their caravan adventure and then headed north only to discover an ad in the local Geraldton paper calling for wardens for the historic property.

The Dunn's applied, and have lived at Wonnerup ever since caring for the property, maintaining its grounds and welcoming visitors to a unique place amid the Tuart forest.
Margaret and Graham say it's a privilege to live on such a beautiful property and to meet so many interesting people from around Australia and around the world.

Brian has a long association with the National Trust. In the early 1970s with number of colleges working at the Melbourne docks he worked on the restoration of the Polly Woodside.

They were in fact trespassers who took the initiative without the permission of the Trust.

Soon one of the trespassers was employed by the NTVIC as a project manager for the project, and with the support of other volunteers began fixing up the ship. After travelling around Australia he in ended up in Perth in 1995, and began volunteering in 2007.

He is also a Perth Guide city Volunteer and a Perth City Walking Guide, as well as helping with Convict and colonial tours and the Perth Town Hall orientation tour.
Brian cites feeling connected with History & a curiosity about the place he lives, as well as an interest in making a valuable social contribution as his reasons for volunteering.

Wendy Folvig says volunteering at the National Trust keeps her alive and out of her kid's hair!

She monitors heritage issues in the newspapers and contributes proof reading skills to the Trust News magazine.

Wendy began volunteering at the National Trust in the 1990s after a three year stint on the Trust Council as the Country Women's Association (CWA) representative. Over the past 20 years she's contributed to publications, research and the Golden Pipeline project.

Wendy says the range of people and projects at the National Trust is very stimulating. She celebrated her 90th birthday in 2010 and is an inspiration to all Trust staff at the Old Observatory.
Wendy was awarded National Trust Life Membership at the Trust's 50th anniversary celebration in 2009.