Noongar People Celebrate Seeds of Enterprise
Noongar people in Tambellup and Gnowangerup are using local knowledge to raise native plant seedlings that can be used for landscape restoration.
A South Coast Natural Resource Management project supported by a $149,860 Regional Economic Development Grant through the GSDC enabled Noongar groups in the two towns to set up seed gathering and propagation activities.
Gnowangerup Aboriginal Corporation Chair Robbie Miniter said engagement with the project delivered significant benefits to participants in both towns.
Noongar people collect seeds from bush areas and take them to Tambellup, where there is a seed tunnel used to ready the seeds for germination. The prepared seed is taken to a nursery at the Gnowangerup Aboriginal Corporation where it is sprouted and transferred to seed raising pots.
Sheoak, acacia and other seedlings from the project have been used to replant degraded land on a local farm. Participants planted 20,000 seedlings in ground that is too saline or rocky for conventional farming, providing productive use for carbon capture.
Mr Miniter said the nursery currently had 25,000 plants and had plans to extend its capacity to more than 50,000.
Photos: Robbie Miniter examines seedlings in the nursery (top), which currently holds 25,000 plants (bottom).
