Sowing the Seeds of Success – Forum Wrap
The Sowing the Seeds of Success Forum held recently in Hamilton was well received with more than 60 people attending from various parts of Victoria and South Australia.
Linda Broadhurst kicked off proceedings with a talk titled: Improving the past, present and future of Australian restoration – the role of genetics. It was soon evident to the audience that we were in the presence of a great communicator. Linda was able to distill complicated plant genetics concepts into a language that the audience could readily understand.
Our second speaker was Jeff Jeanes from the Victorian Conservation Seedbank. Jeff provided a fascinating overview of the vital work he and his fellow workers do in collecting and trying to ‘break the code’ of difficult to germinate species and the work they do to conserve the seeds of Victoria’s rare and threatened species.
Highly respected South Australian seed collector and bush regenerator, Neville Bonney took us up to the lunch break with a very informative and interesting talk about what he has learned from 50 years of collecting, germinating, growing and revegetating with native plants.
After lunch Jess Gardener and Doug Philips gave a very interesting overview of the work that Greening Australia Victoria have been doing over the last 30 years and how the records of revegetation projects over that time are helping inform and improve current approaches to revegetation. As manager of the Portland Seedbank, Doug Philps was also able to provide insight into the ups and downs of maintaining a community Seedbank.
The success of this Forum was not only due to the diversity of really interesting and entertaining speakers but also to those who worked quietly behind the scenes, on both side of the border, to provide support. Thanks guys.
A packed audience at the Seed Forum in Hamilton
