By Hal Young 1982 It hardly seems ten years since a few orchid growers who were interested in species, met to discuss the possibility of  forming a "Species Study Group" under the wing of the West Brisbane Orchid Society.   For my part it started much earlier when I was only five or six years old. I went out one afternoon with my Grandmother  and my Aunt who were looking for "bush" orchids in the hills near Wyong in New South Wales. We did not find any of  course. They may have had more idea than I did about what to look for but since then the word 'orchid' seemed to mean  something exotic and mysterious and I have not lost my fascination for these beautiful plants. I must have been infected  by some virus or other when I bought my first "Cookie" about twenty years ago and soon after collected a few native  Cymbidiums in the bush. Not long after that I met Graham Nosworthy and although I cannot really blame him,   I became a chronic sufferer of "Orchidmania". I did not know what was so special about species but he soon put me on  the right track.   We casually talked about the possibility of forming an orchid species society and our first step was to place an  advertisement in the newspaper about September 1972. Our inaugral meeting was held on 9th October 1972 and thirteen  prospective members attended. We called ourselves 'The Species Study Group' but at the next meeting took the  adventurous step of becoming an independent society. Of these original foundation members, six are still with us. Sadly  two of the originals, Don Carnegie and Dave Broughton have moved on.  Don was our first Secretary and it was largely his efforts and boundless enthusiasm that kept the society together in its  early days. We certainly had no idea then that it would grow to over one hundred members in ten years. Dave served the  Society well as its first Librarian and he was always there when some work had to be done.  Maybe our most adventurous step was taken in 1977 when we decided to stage our first show. It was not our intention to  amass a vast fortune but to try to show how interesting and beautiful species could be. Our first show was very successful  and provided us with sufficient funds to carry out our operations without the fear of going into receivership. The idea of  the show was conceived by Eric Cullen who was then President of the Society. Our subsequent shows have been very  successful and this has enabled us to donate some of the proceeds to the Spina Bifida Association of Queensland.