As exciting as watching grass grow (which in this case is pretty exciting!)

[I min 40secs read]

Seed Production Area – January 2024

One of the major limitations of land rehabilitation projects is the availability of sufficient quantities of native seeds.

A mining company can have a large parcel of disturbed land, and funding to rehabilitate it, but how is it possible to restore 4000 hectares of spinifex if you only have enough seed to plant a fraction of that area?

This was the challenge for our Biologic Seed team, supporting BHP, to reestablish spinifex grasslands in its Yandi mine area: which would require around 24 tonnes of seed.

On a good rainfall year, the entire Pilbara can only generate 6-10 tonnes of seed from wild harvest. This lack of supply, compounded by regulatory restrictions on collection locations, variability in rainfall, and competition from other neighbouring mining companies, makes seeds a highly sort after commodity.

Seed Production Area April 2024

The solution:

Biologic Seed has established a wild spinifex farm to produce seed, to supplement the wild harvest. This is thought to be the first scaled spinifex seed production area in the Pilbara.

This project has been done in partnership with BHP and local Traditional Owners, providing opportunities for training and mentoring members of the Banjima trainee program in seed collection, processing and propagation techniques.

After identifying the most compatible species and the most viable seeds, the team treated them using in-house methods and undertook soil sampling to rule out major hostile conditions.

Seed Production Area – August 2024

They seeded the area in mid-summer using Biologic Seed’s direct seeding machine, and then, for two weeks, the team simulated a ‘rainfall’ regime calibrated to trigger maximum seedling recruitment using an irrigation system.

The result is multiple hectares of thriving spinifex, paving the way for Phase 2 of the project, which BHP has greenlit to begin in late 2024 involving on-going farm maintenance and monitoring the onset of the first flush of flowering and seed production.

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