"When I arrived at the venue the society had a small display of fine bonsai for me to enjoy, and I really did. I was particularly impressed with the work of Shannon Young one of the younger members of the society. He showed me a small leaf fig which I saw at the 2009 Australian Associated Bonsai Club convention where I taught and presented him with an award of encouragement for the same tree. I guess it worked, because the tree has developed quite nicely. He also had a Benjamin fig trained in a slanting style shohin bonsai from SEED which was impressive."
"Although Bald cypress is not native to Australia is it commonly used for bonsai, and they must really like this climate. I saw old looking trees, with rough bark and well developed branching where were under ten years old, from seed! Quite impressive! Shannon had a large forest set up in a corner display which was a two man bonsai. The trunks were magnificent as was the group planting composition. I found it difficult to believe he started the forest only four years ago from pencil size cuttings. He had another larger thicker specimen with quite a bit of dead wood as well."
--- extract from Bill Valavanis Bonsai Blog -