Murray Seedbank Services

The Murray CMA has developed one of the most extensive, integrated seedbank and revegetation systems in the state.

It supplies locally provenanced native seed to ensure that over 3000 km of direct seeding can be undertaken annually by the Murray CMA to restore and revegetate under-represented species. 

The need for a Murray Seedbank
The work by the Murray CMA and landholders to regenerate and restore woodland areas in the Murray Catchment of NSW is based on the principle of selection and protection of the best quality sites. Landholders involved in the program are offered incentives to carry out appropriate management and restoration practices to replant and repair sites.

In much of the woodland ecosystems of the NSW Murray Catchment, there has been significant loss of understorey shrubs across the landscape, and consequently a lack of structural and species diversity, with little or no regeneration potential. Loss of species diversity and understorey results largely from inappropriate grazing practices, clearing and rabbits, with a gradual decline and loss of new seedlings, and annihilation of seed in the soil.

The work of the Murray CMA Seedbank Services Team

• Providing information about the species that would have occurred in each area of the Catchment in regional Vegetation Guides (available in hardcopy from the CMA and online) and Roadside Vegetation Plans (available from your Local Council)
• Creating a network of over 65 Seed Production Areas (SPAs) across the Catchment on private properties which contain and produce large volumes of seed of a range of species.
• The collection, processing and storage of up to 1.5 tonnes of this native plant seed every year.
• The distribution of seed to nurseries, landcare and community groups
• The development and extension of machine direct seeding technology that allows the efficient sowing of up to 2500 hectares of direct seeded shrubs and trees a year across the Catchment.