In 2020, the Inala Jurassic Garden officially commenced an in situ and ex situ conservation program, known as the 'Noah’s Ark Project'. The garden includes numerous threatened Tasmanian endemic plant species such as King Billy Pine (Athrotaxis selaginoides), Pencil Pine (Athrotaxis cupressoides) and several members of the Family Podocarpaceae including Huon Pine (Lagarostrobos franklinii), Mount Mawson Pine (Pherosphaera hookeriana), Mountain Plum Pine (Podocarpus lawrencei) and Creeping Strawberry Pine (Microcachrys tetragona). These are all alpine species which are under serious threat from climate change-induced drought and wildfires.
Inala Jurassic Garden seeks to engage with other botanic gardens, arboreta and scientific institutes to collaborate on other conservation activities in this field. This includes our collaboration with Bedgebury Pinetum on the critically-endangered Widdringtonia whytei, and our affiliation with the Global Conservation Consortium - Nothofagus, led by Wakehurst-Kew Gardens.
Read more about the Noah's Arc project and all the interconnected plant conservation projects through the links below.
The Inala Jurassic Garden has worked in partnership with Bedgebury National Pinetum and Forest, Goudhurst UK since 2021 to obtain seed from the critically endangered Mulanje Cedar, which is native to Malawi, Africa. The project is funded by a Botanic Gardens Conservation International/ArbNet grant, which was awarded to the Inala Jurassic Garden in 2021. It has taken a considerable amount of time and effort by all parties to obtain the seed and navigate the export/import requirements for transporting the seed from Malawi to the UK, and then from UK to Inala. Germination trials commenced at Inala in September 2023.
Photo: Dan Luscombe (Bedgebury National Pinetum & Forest, UK) and Tonia - with a Mulanje Cedar. Photo taken at Bedgebury 2022).
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Funds to preserve Global Plant Biodiversity were awarded to 10 Botanic Gardens by BGCI, we are proud to be one of those chosen
Since 2021 we have collected material from approximately 150 plant species growing in the Jurassic Garden, to contribute to the Global Genome Biodiversity Network database. In 2023 we were once again awarded a GGI grant and were able to collect plant and genetic material from a further 27 species of plants, which are currently not represented in the GGBN database.
Photo: Dr Catherine Young preparing plants to be pressed (2021)
In 2022, the Jurassic Garden was awarded a Botanic Gardens Conservation International/ArbNet grant to undertake a year-long survey of Nothofagus cunnighamii trees on South Bruny Island, Tasmania. We are working in partnership on this project with Kew Gardens (Wakehurst) UK, who oversee the Global Consortium (Nothofagus) project.
Photo: New growth of leaves -Â Nothofagus cunninghamii
Paleoendemic Tasmanian plants are Gondwanan relics; ancient plants with a restricted distribution within Tasmania, comprised of lineages that have survived relatively unchanged for millions of years due to Tasmania’s relatively stable climate which is becoming more unstable, with increased fire risk and decreased rainfall. If these species are lost due to a catastrophic event like drought or fire, they are irreplaceable, hence the urgent need to conserve insurance populations in ex-situ collections. Â
Photo: Eucryphia lucida (Brad Moriarty)
The Inala Jurassic Garden (IJG) is one of 35 botanic gardens from around the world (and one of 5 in Australia) that has been chosen as part of the Global Wollemi Pine metacollection Project and is protecting and housing six genetically distinct Wollemi Pine specimens in the IJG living collection.Â
When Tonia started collecting plant species with Gondwanan connections for the IJG, she didn’t fully appreciate that she would become custodian of some extremely rare and irreplaceable specimens. Situated on an island which tempers the extremes of heat and cold, in an area of Tasmania that has relatively high rainfall consistent with that Gondwanan species have been thriving for millions of years predisposes the IJG to suitable growing conditions for many of these species.
We have joined a collaborative project to establish ex situ collections of Far North Queensland cloud/montane forest plants including Gondwanan species of flowering plants, conifers, ferns, mosses and other non-flowering taxa.
The TroMPS project is a multi-institutional initiative dedicated to conserving plant species which are highly susceptible to climate change
Inala Nature
320 Cloudy Bay Road, Lunawanna
South Bruny Island 7150
Tasmania, Australia
Phone:Â +61 3 6293 1217
Inala Nature acknowledge and pay respects to the palawa people as the traditional and original owners, and continuing custodians of this land, lutruwita, and acknowledges Elders - past and present. Inala Nature Tours and the Inala Foundation Inc are located on lunawanna- alonnah, also known as Bruny Island, the traditional land of the Nuenonne people.
