Native nursery needs help as drought increases demand

The Geographe Community Landcare Nursery (GCLN) is celebrating a much-needed boost in funding thanks to a 2024 NAB Foundation Community Grant.

The $10,496.00 grant will be used to purchase 12 workbenches and two trollies, as part of the Nursery’s Drought Recovery Initiative.

But there’s more to be done to help the group achieve its goal of increasing production of local native plants.

“Our region has just experienced the hottest and driest Summer and Autumn on record, and we are anticipating a higher demand for drought tolerant species to replace some of the plants lost in the drought,” GCLN’s Anne Grove explained.

She said the South West was showing severe signs of heat, and drought stress, and all evidence pointed to an increased frequency and severity of long, dry periods.

“When the dry effects the flora, it has a roll-on effect on our native wildlife, restricting or decimating both habitat and food sources.

“With this in mind, the purpose of our organisation is heightened and the production of native species with local provenance has never been more important.

“Based on the evidence, we anticipate the demand for our native plants will increase substantially over the next 3 years and continue to grow exponentially thereon.”

The Nursery was one of 25 organisations across Australia to share in $600,000 from the latest round of the NAB Foundation program.

Anne said the generous grant would help the Nursery purchase benches to increase production, but it was in desperate need of additional hands on deck.

“The Nursery’s ability to meet this increasing demand in the short term is currently restricted by a shortage of volunteers to help us propagate more plants and this is now becoming quite urgent,” she said.

“Having sufficient volunteers to undertake this propagation task is a key component of our success.”

If you would like to help with growing plants for revegetation of bushland, farming areas, home gardens and public parks, please contact Anne admin@gcln.org.au or 0438 930 898.