Plant Conservation Australia

13/10/2026

We held a WA Priority Flora Workshop yesterday at the DBCA's Keiran McNamara Conservation Science Centre in Perth. The aim of the workshop was to identify and begin scoping pilot project opportunities related to the conservation status assessment of Priority Flora in Western Australia, to facilitate threatened species listings or removals from the Priority Flora list. Thank you to DBCA, the Western Australian Biodiversity Science Institute and Rio Tinto for supporting the workshop, and to everyone for their enthusiastic participation!

09/10/2026

Relive all the action from APCC15 with this little highlights package over on our youtube channel. Be sure to follow us over there as recordings of the presentations are coming out soon!

Around 120 (plus over 20 online) people gathered in Port Douglas fr...

08/10/2026

New paper alert!

Plant Conservation Australia through Outreach Delegate Bob Makinson has led an article on Myrtle Rust and the metacollection approach published in Plants, People, Planet. The article is titled “An extinction-emergency metacollection: Maximising future recovery options for Rhodomyrtus psidioides (Myrtaceae), threatened by Myrtle Rust". You can find the article (open access) here: https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ppp3.70262

The article outlines the innovative "metacollection” approach to capturing the genetic diversity of a rapidly vanishing rainforest tree (Native Guava) before Myrtle Rust disease wipes it out in the wild - and building a blueprint to do the same for other threatened species. It demonstrates that a coordinated, multi-partner rescue effort can be possible under real-world constraints - including limited funding, logistical hurdles, and the biological urgency of a species on the brink. The hope is that the model offers both a practical toolkit and a note of cautious optimism for the growing list of species facing similar crises.

This work was led by Plant Conservation Australia in collaboration with multiple agencies including the Botanic Gardens of Sydney, Lismore Regional Botanic Garden, UNSW Science, Queensland Environment, Biosecurity Queensland, Booderee National Park (Booderee Botanic Gardens), Australian National Botanic Gardens, Australian Seed Bank Partnership, Dandenong Ranges Botanic Garden and NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

25/09/2026

Just over a week to go until the deadline for entries for the 2026 Australian Plant Photography Competition 🌱

With spring in full bloom this weekend is the perfect chance to get out and capture some stunning images that capture the beauty of our native plants and the work that goes into protecting them.

See the website for more details and to submit your entries:
https://www.anpc.asn.au/2026-australian-plant-photography-competition/

24/09/2026

It's never been a better time to join Plant Conservation Australia as a student, unwaged or retiree. We've halved the concession membership rate to only $30 annually! Sign up by the end of the year to take advantage of this offer.
https://www.anpc.asn.au/membership/

17/09/2026

Snapshots from the Threatened Plants of the Daintree field trip led by Darren Crayn of Australian Tropical Herbarium (on his birthday!).

First stop on the trip was looking at restoration work being undertaken by Jabalbina Yalanji Aboriginal Corporation at the newly established Wawu Dimbi Julaymba restoration site - alongside Restoration of Tropical Forests field trip (field trip 1) attendees.

We then ventured into the Daintree National Park where (after lunch on the beach) we were treated to some stunning rainforest plants at the Madja Boardwalk including tassel ferns and many epiphytic orchids. We also had a chance Cassowary encounter!

On the way back our final stop was at a significant rainforest creek site which is home to the endangered Syzygium glenum and Xanthostemon formosus among others.

10/09/2026

Day 3 of APCC15 (and the final day of presentations) was a wonderful way to wrap up formal proceedings! We had excellent morning talks from the conservation planning section of the Sustaining Diversity subtheme, ranging all the way from Tassel ferns to Fungi.

The final two interactive workshops split the day, one from Liz Foote about Conservation Marketing and how to drive behaviour change, and the other from Australian Seed Bank Partnership on the current state of germplasm collection in Queensland.

After lunch President Caroline Gross led a brainstorming session on feedback a draft PCA Conference Statement, which led to countless important contributions from delegates, from which you will be hearing more about in due course.

We then wrapped up in the afternoon with the Restoring Balance subtheme with some fascinating and uplifting case studies in complex biodiversity restoration.

09/09/2026

Have you got a great restoration story to tell? 🌿 Now is the time to tell it!

Big project. Small project. Student research. Years of patient natural regeneration.

Great ecological restoration takes knowledge, persistence and care. And that work deserves recognition.

THE CLOSING DATE FOR THE 2026 SERA AWARDS HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MONDAY 21S SEPTEMBER.

There are four awards, recognising large and small restoration projects, student research and outstanding natural regeneration work, with prizes of up to $1,500.

The photo tells one such story. Sue Currey, Jack Green and Ray Thompson are pictured with the 2021 Albert Morris Award, received by the Marra Creek Catchment Landholders for restoring nearly 40,000 hectares of overgrazed and denuded land to productive native pastures.

Your story might be on a very different scale. That doesn’t make it any less worth telling.

🌱 Get your application in by 21 September 2026:
https://chapter.ser.org/australasia/sera-awards/sera-awards-2026/

Know a project, practitioner, community or student whose work deserves recognition? Tag them or send them this post.


The Society for Ecological Restoration Australasia
Plant Conservation Australia
Australian Association of Bush Regenerators-AABR

09/09/2026

Highlights of a brilliant pre-conference rainforest plant ID course with Australian Tropical Herbarium at the Daintree Rainforest Observatory - James Cook University. A huge thankyou to Stuart Worboys for running such a great course, including explaining the diagnostic features of rainforest species, conveying the importance and uniqueness of the Wet Tropics, and also how to use the Lucid key for Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants.

04/09/2026

A superb writeup on APCC15 from Cassandra Nichols, CEO of Bganz in their latest news blog.

Written by Cassandra Nichols, CEO, BGANZ There could hardly have been a more fitting location for the 15th Australasian Plant Conservation Conference than Port Douglas, on the doorstep of one of Australia’s most remarkable and hard-fought-for landscapes. Held under the theme Plant Conservation: C...