There is a wealth of experience across our region when it comes to revegetation through direct seeding. To tap into this collective wisdom, YAN recently invited practitioners, contractors, seed collectors, landholders and restoration specialists to come together for a Direct Seeding Knowledge Exchange workshop. 

 

Gathered in Gundaroo Hall, the room was rich with stories; the good, the bad, and the little gems of insight that only come from years of practical experience. The aim was simple: learn from one another, distil practical knowledge, and strengthen our approach to building revegetation through direct seeding. 

 

    

 

What we explored 

Across the morning, small and large group discussions covered the full spectrum of direct seeding practice: 

Seed sourcing and species selection 

We discussed what species are best suited to our landscapes, how many to include in a mix, and whether to collect or purchase seed. Participants shared practical advice on choosing species for different soils and landscape positions, and how to balance diversity with cost. 

Getting the job done 

Conversations covered the practical side of direct seeding — working with contractors, preparing sites, spraying, fencing, and planning. Clear planning and good communication were highlighted as essential. 

Looking after the site 

We explored how to manage and monitor sites over time, including thinning, tracking growth, and keeping monitoring meaningful and motivating. Compared with tube stock plantings, direct seeding was noted for its lower ongoing intervention. 

 

   

 

   

 

Key Insights from the Day 

Several powerful insights emerged: 

• - Direct seeding can be done in any season. If the rain isn’t there, the seed still is. When conditions align, plants will emerge. 

• - The cost benefits are significant. From a farm economics perspective, direct seeding often costs less than tube stock planting and requires lower ongoing intervention. 

• - Nature plays a role in selection. Direct seeding allows the landscape to “choose” what works best for that site. 

• - The human benefits matter. There is something deeply rewarding about watching plants jump from the ground, hearing birds return, and feeling country grow healthier and more diverse. 

• - Direct seeding and tubestock planting are complementary. Direct seeding can work in many, but not all situations. There is still a place for tubestock planting. 
•  

Seeing the results at Ambrosia Park 

After lunch, participants travelled 10km outside Gundaroo to Ambrosia Park to see the long-term results of a 2012 Whole of Paddock Restoration (WOPR) project delivered by Greening Australia. 

 

The transformation was striking. Where once there was bare native grassland, now stands a thriving mosaic of trees and shrubs. Over 5,600 eucalypts and more than double that number of acacia species were established, creating shade, habitat and a functioning microclimate. 

 

Graham Fifield from Greening Australia spoke about the original site design, species mix, layout and the ongoing monitoring approach. Current custodians Jess and Rob Garnett shared their joy in watching the site evolve, seeing livestock benefit from shelter, hearing birds return, and witnessing the country grow in resilience. 

 

Standing beneath the canopy, listening to birdsong and feeling the temperature shift under shade, it was a powerful reminder of how dramatic change can occur within a relatively short period of time. 

 

   

 

   

 

   

 

What’s next? 

There is much more to share from this rich day of exchange. We will be distilling the knowledge gathered and incorporating it into our Climate Ready Revegetation and Habitat Hops programs. 

 

If you’re curious about direct seeding, whether you’re just starting out or looking to refine your approach, please get in touch. Within the YAN network there is an abundance of experience, practical advice and people willing to help you grow climate-ready landscapes. 

 

   

 

 

Written by Sarah McGrath, Bowning Bookham Coordinator & Sonya Duus, Climate Ready Revegetation Project Officer

 

As Landcarers, we’re often focused on getting things done at the ground level. Informed by the bigger picture, absolutely, but then turning that information into practical action in our local area.

 

Taking a step back to tell our story on camera was a rare opportunity to take more of a birds-eye view of our work; a parallel to the drone footage of a long expanse of revegetation making connections through a highly cleared landscape. It gave us a chance to reflect on what we have achieved through working with our amazing volunteers and connecting up with other groups and organisations, powered by a strong and common concern to do something positive in the face of climate change.

 

  

 

We engaged Suzannah Cowley and her team from Nviro Media to create a short video, funded by our NSW Environmental Trust Grant and YAN. We provided an outline of what we thought should be covered—the people, motivation, ideas, and publicly available resources that make our program possible—with the aim of inspiring others to start their own climate-ready journeys. Suzannah then applied her professional craft to produce an engaging video that delivers a powerful message.

 

  

 

We are really happy with the outcome, and we hope you like it too! We’d love to hear what this inspires in your own patch.

 

 

For more information about YAN's Climate Ready Revegetation Program, check out our webpage: https://yan.org.au/projects/climate-ready-revegetation

 

By Sonya Duus, Climate Ready Revegetation Project Officer

 

The Climate Ready Revegetation Project has been assisted by the NSW Government through its Environmental Trust. Landcare Australia Michael King grants enable us to purchase seed from diverse provenances.

The old cliché “when it rains, it pours” perfectly describes the recent opportunities we've had to share YAN’s Climate Ready Revegetation work.

 

Soon after Gill and Sarah’s popular presentation at the National Landcare Conference at the Gold Coast, YAN’s Climate Ready Revegetation work was presented at the Native Seed Diversity & Revegetation Workshop organised by Holbrook Landcare Network, at the AdaptNSW Forum in Sydney (see trip report below), and at a South East Landcare gathering near Nowra.

 

It has been great to share our approach to future-proofing our local landscapes, and equally valuable to learn what other work is being done to prepare, adapt, and build climate resilience.

 

 

Left/top: Climate Resilience Garden at Wirraminna Environmental Education Centre. Located in the Holbrook region, the Centre is well worth visiting!

Right/bottom: A visit to one of Murray Local Land Services' seed production areas in the Holbrook region was very eye opening!

 

AdaptNSW Forum

YAN's Climate Ready Revegetation team was pleased to be invited to present at the 2025 AdaptNSW Forum, held on November 25-26 at the Roundhouse in Sydney.

 

Gill Hall and Sonya Duus attended the forum and presented YAN's work as part of the session titled: ‘Resilient by Design: Adapting nature repair to a changing climate’.

 

In their presentation, ‘Volunteer-driven Climate Ready Revegetation in the Yass Area’, they gave an overview of YAN’s efforts. They focused on the program's foundation in the latest available science regarding climate change projections and genetic diversity, and highlighted the crucial role of volunteers in propagating and distributing climate-ready plants in the Yass area.

 

The presentation was well-received by a large and engaged audience, generating strong interest in our grassroots community efforts towards building ecological resilience.

 

 

Left/top: Gill Hall talking about the motivation behind YAN's Climate Ready Revegetation Program at the AdaptNSW Forum. Photo credit: Elin Bandmann

Right/bottom: Sonya Duus speaking at the AdaptNSW Forum. Photo credit: Lauren Rickards

 

The panel also included Maurizio Rossetto (Research Centre for Ecosystem Resilience, Botanic Gardens of Sydney), David Rissik (Risk and Resilience Specialist, BMT), and Renee Burrow (Big Scrub Rainforest Conservancy). The session was chaired by Michelle Dawson from the Cultural and Ecosystem Climate Change Adaptation Team at the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

 

The session also involved a practical component where attendees were given the chance to explore the newly launched, updated version of the Restore & Renew webtool.

 

  

Left/top: Session participants exploring the updated Restore & Renew webtool

Right/bottom: The updated Restore & Renew webtool being launched at the AdaptNSW Forum 2025

 

The two-day forum's theme was "Other Ways of Knowing, Thinking, Feeling and Doing". It was great to see significant Aboriginal content and a mix of refreshingly mind-stretching concepts and methods alongside more conventional topics. The event provided a valuable opportunity to share information and connect with others working on diverse aspects of climate change adaptation.

 

YAN’s participation at this event was made possible thanks to funding from the NSW Department Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

 

Written by Sonya Duus, Climate Ready Revegetation Project Officer

 

The Climate Ready Revegetation Project has been assisted by the NSW Government through its Environmental Trust. Landcare Australia Michael King grants enable us to purchase seed from diverse provenances.

Once a year, we systematically take stock of what we've accomplished in our Climate Ready Revegetation program. This annual reporting to our funders is more than just a requirement; it's a great opportunity to reflect on our successes, identify areas for refinement, and truly appreciate the enormous collective effort contributed by our dedicated volunteers as they prepare the landscape for the future.

 

Because we are dealing with plants, it’s not surprising that there is a seasonal flow to our work. Beginnings and ends are a bit arbitrary in natural systems, but let’s start in spring 2024 (which is when our reporting year starts).

 

In early spring 2024, a group of volunteers got together to sort and pot up the seed for YAN’s Climate Ready nurseries. It took several hours of focused attention, handling around 260 seed collections across our 40 climate ready nursery species. By mixing seed from multiple different provenances for each species, we are intentionally increasing the genetic diversity in our tubestock and in local revegetation plantings.  This is a core strategy to improve their capacity to adapt to changing environmental conditions over time. We are incredibly grateful for the annual Michael King grants that allow us to purchase this seed.

 

During spring 2024, volunteers at our three Landcare nurseries, along with the nursery team at the Alexander Machonochie Centre, sowed seed for all 40 Climate Ready species.

 

 

Over spring and summer, nursery volunteers then followed up with all the essential care (watering, weeding, thinning, etc) that germinating seeds and young plants require. Altogether, across a 12-month period, around 75 volunteers contributed a total of more than 2,300 hours on these crucial nursery activities, ultimately resulting in close to 17,000 tubestock that were ready for planting.

 

In autumn 2025, most of the tubestock were ready to plant out. Nursery volunteers then managed the final stage, arranging the orders that landholders had placed earlier in the year and distributing the tubestock for planting.

 

Over autumn and early winter, some 90 landholders with their friends and family planted out the tubestock as part of large and small revegetation efforts, tree lanes, and filling-in previous plantings. We encourage all landholders to monitor their plantings and provide feedback so they can track the progress on their properties and help us to improve our practices. Meanwhile, a dedicated volunteer was conducting germination tests on newly-purchased seed collections for the following season.

 

 

 

During the winter months, our volunteers continued to care for the smaller number of species that are propagated in autumn, distributing any left-over plants, and preparing the nurseries for the next year’s cycle.

 

Also part of the annual cycle, volunteer trial hosts monitor their plantings and report on the survival of our three-species trial plantings that is checking the survival of plants grown from ‘local’ and ‘non-local’ seed. Results so far show survival is comparable between the two treatments.

 

Behind the Scenes

Seeds and plants are the physical, tangible, elements of our climate-ready work, but there is alsoa significant amount of strategy and coordination happening behind the scenes.

 

The Climate Ready Revegetation (CRR) team, which includes five long-serving volunteers as well as the CRR Project Officer and YAN Coordinator, helps to guide all aspects of the program. We had in-depth meetings roughly every three months to discuss the operation and strategic direction of the program, as well as having regular email and phone communication.

 

 

A lot of work goes into assessing species to check whether they are likely to be suitable for our future climate. In the last year, three local ecological experts also volunteered their time to advise on the ecologically important species we should consider for our nurseries.

 

There are also lots of other activities related to the coordination and administration of the program. This includes managing the seed pipeline (sourcing seed from numerous different provenances from multiple seed retailers, checking the spread of provenances are adequate, undertaking seed stocktakes, and keeping detailed records of our seed collections); program governance (reviewing our species list and documenting processes); outreach (encouraging landholders to monitor their plantings and communicating with our Landcare members, partners, and broader network); and the essential tasks of applying for funding and reporting to project funders.

 

Highlights and Future Focus

A major highlight from the past year has been our partnership with the Botanic Gardens of Sydney’s genetic team, which informs our multi-provenance seed sourcing strategy. We eagerly await the results of Eucalyptus melliodora genetic sequencing (of our seed, seedlings and plantings) to understand the genetic diversity achieved so far for this species and how to further improve it.

 

It has been very rewarding to launch an initiative where committed volunteers are trialling different methods at home to help us 'crack the germination code' on species difficult to propagate in our nurseries.

 

We have also begun seriously investigating strategies to upscale our impact, specifically by exploring climate-ready direct seeding options, networking with other groups, and actively sharing our methods and experience – including at the National Landcare Conference. To help communicate the benefits of our approach, we also engaged a filmmaker during the last year.

 

It’s been a massive, productive year for the program, showcasing the dedication of our entire Landcare community. If you would like to get involved with any aspect of our work, please get in touch. 🌱

 

 

By Sonya Duus, Climate Ready Revegetation Project Officer

 

The Climate Ready Revegetation Project has been assisted by the NSW Government through its Environmental Trust. Landcare Australia Michael King grants enable us to purchase seed from diverse provenances.