Impact and benefits

This project has shed light on the true state of condition of some of Australia’s rarest and poorly known plants, and has now been used by our state government in re-assessing the classification of some of these species, due to their decline or lack of prior data.

The program is also immensely important as a maintained collection, as it allows for these species to be safeguarded, should they continue to decline, or disappear in the wild, with several species in the collection threatened with extinction in the wild by the end of this decade. The collection allows for easier and fast-tracked propagation for conservation, simpler and cheaper research, as well as providing the opportunity for our students to safely work with flora they would likely never get the chance to see, let alone work on.

This collection has already worked as a sustainable and safe outlet for other conservation collections, with several of our endangered species now having been donated to other botanic gardens and conservation groups, due to an excess of stock from the success of the program.

Leadership and engagement

Brandan has received internal accolades for the threatened species project, but more importantly, has used the project to better cement the partnership between our Estate Management team and our Academic Sciences team. The program falls under our Natural Asset Management Plan’s commitment to tropical conservation and flora care, as well as creating a more immersive campus, to create living laboratories, now used by our science majors and vet students. The project has allowed Brandan and some of our academics to draw funding to expand, as well as opening new research programs, and casual roles for some of our students.