UQ’s Centre for Native Floriculture (CNF) is helping indigenous communities in St George and Dirranbandi develop native flower enterprises.
Dr Margaret Johnston and Ian Gordon from CNF have been working with David Brown from the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) to provide training and advice to help these groups set up profitable flower farms.
The group at St George could gain priority access to new flower species because the site will be used to trial previously untested species.
The CNF will provide what are known as “filler” species, which are the small flowers used to fill-in a bouquet of flowers.
Two species that will be trialled are Dodonaea and Newcastelia, which are both native to the St George area.
Dondonaea have red and pink fruits on a green stem, while Newcastelia have white cotton like flowers.
“All these species are very new and will hopefully be introduced to flower farms after further development,” Dr Johnston said.
She said floriculture could provide invaluable opportunities to the indigenous communities.
“The world market for floriculture products is very large, but Australia has a very small share of the market – less than one per cent,” she said.”
“However, in international floriculture, new crops are highly desired.
“So if we can provide the right species, we have the potential to help develop a very profitable business.”
The University of Queensland, CNF and DPI have provided funding for the Indigenous groups to attend training sessions at the Centre in April as part of the UQ’s Diversity Week activities.
This followed an earlier trip where staff of CNF visited the farms at St George and Dirranbandi.
Dr Johnston said the farm at St George had great potential because it had well drained soil and the required infrastructure, such as cool rooms and packing sheds.
“The other advantage at St George is that it has the necessary freight system to allow transport to the airport and international markets,” she said.
Media: For more information, contact: Dr Margaret Johnston (telephone 07 5460 1240, email m.johnston@uq.edu.au) or David Brown (telephone 4688 1552) or David Ashkanasy at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 2339 or d.Ashkanasy@uq.edu.au).
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