Most people will be familiar with the sight of Janene Gardner surrounded by books at her book shop, Under the Greenwood Tree.
But when not offering great advice on the next perfect novel, she’s a regular traveller and joked that she always encounters a local while on her travels.
We actually struck up a friendship when we bumped into each other on the deck of a boat returning from Heron Island a few years ago.
“I am the queen of short adventures,” she laughed.
“My mother is in her late 80s and she loves adventures, so we go on swimming trips and adventures around Australia.”
But she admitted you’d never bump into her on cruise ship.
“I don’t like cruises,” she stated, before remembering her literacy cruise from Sydney to Tasmania earlier this year.
Having been with the same literary group on the mountain for 26 years, this year for their annual trip a cruise was booked, and despite protesting, Janene admitted it was great.
“I actually didn’t mind it. Everyone on there was obsessed with books and the authors were good,” she said.
Janene grew up in Sydney in an isolated spot on the upper reaches of the Woronora River.
“We only had boat access to our home. We’d take our tinnies to school. It was a fabulous spot to grow up,” she recalled.
When the government reclaimed the area for national parks, her parents moved to Queensland and upon finishing high school Janene followed, attending the University of Queensland and doing a double major in art history.
“The arts were always my passion, and I’ve always worked in the arts,” she said.
She worked in one of the only two contemporary art galleries in Brisbane, then a fine art auction house, before becoming manager of McWhirter’s Arts Space in Fortitude Valley.
Then motherhood came and she continued to commute from Tamborine Village to Brisbane where she opened her own gallery, Contemporary Art and Design Gallery in Woolloongabba.
By the time she became pregnant with her third child her mother said she couldn’t help looking after another one while Janene worked, so she took a five-year break.
When her youngest child started school she opened Marks and Garden Gallery at Secret Garden and Secret Garden Café.
“The café became all consuming. We did it for 11 years and I didn’t want to have a café anymore,” she shared.
“I was a bit burnt out and I’d stopped working, but I am a workaholic. I love it. I needed to be back busy again.
“I had been showing artists’ works for so long and I couldn’t stop. I thought I’d have a tiny gallery and increase the bookshop size. The arts is my background and the books are my love.”
In 2016 she opened Under the Greenwood Tree.
She said being able to showcase several artists’ work over the years is a real privilege and has allowed her to develop a unique connection with them.
“To see their work develop and become collectible. What’s not to like about having an art gallery and a book shop?” she asked.
“People who love arts and books are really nice people, so I spend most of my day having really great conversations.
“It’s only as good as its customers and I’m incredibly lucky have interesting, amazing readers across a wide range of books with the support of the local community; without that I could never be here.”
She said she’d always intended to set up in Brisbane again but found she couldn’t leave her home and garden or her two dogs and work companions, Finn and Pippy.
“It’s the older people on the mountain that are so amazing. You look at every street name, and all the families are still here. It’s unbelievable, it doesn’t happen in other areas.
“It’s that sense of community and history that really makes the mountain special,” Janene said.
“We can be on acreage and have our privacy and horses and still walk to a coffee shop. Where else in the world do you get to do that?”
