In the summer of 2019–20, Kangaroo Island recorded its most devastating bushfires on record.
The island, located off the mainland of South Australia, is home to nearly 900 native plant varieties and is an ecological haven due to its isolated, unspoilt natural environment.
In response to the potential loss of plant species endemic to the island following the bushfires, a seed production garden has been established to safeguard the island's plants from extinction.
Flora ecologist Bradley Bianco said the primary purpose of establishing the garden was to provide seeds for restoration projects.
He describes the garden as a place that "introduces the community to Kangaroo Island's rare and threatened species in a setting that's enjoyable to be in".
For a lot of its history, the local flora on the island has evolved with fire as plants adapted to being burnt. But now, ecologists have concerns about the changing rate and scale of recent bushfires.
"One of the bigger issues is fire frequency. The intervals between fires appear to be coming contracted, so we're having hotter fires that cover more ground more frequently," Mr Bianco said.
"We're not sure how plants are going to be able to cope with this new fire regime."
Plants silently suffering
Already, parts of the island's plant life are under pressure.
Fractured landscapes where only small slivers of vegetation have survived have meant fewer opportunities for new seeds
"They're isolated, they're low in number and to restore these populations we need to have an adequate and diverse resource base in the form of seeds," Mr Bianco said.
In SA, 1 in 4 native plant species is threatened with some level of extinction, with some classified as vulnerable and endangered.
Fires, land clearances and numerous browsing animals are said to be some of the threats to the island's flora.
"SA is one of the most heavily, if not the most heavily cleared state in the country, which has pushed a lot of species to be threatened with extinction," Mr Bianco said.
The location
The 5,000-square-metre garden is located 5 kilometres south-west of the island's largest town, Kingscote, on land donated by environmental philanthropists David and Penny Paton.
"We're obviously passionate about plants and wildlife and we could see a need on the island for such a garden to grow threatened plants," Ms Paton said.
The Threatened Flora Seed Production Garden will be enclosed within an animal-proof fence inside Cygnet Park Sanctuary.
Launched with the support of SA's Nature Conservation Society, Bio R and SA Seed Conservation Centre, the garden will act as "an insurance policy" in the case of future fires.
The Patons are hopeful the garden will have multiple functions.
"I imagine it to look almost like a piece of bushland, with walking tracks through it … but yes, it will be a beautiful place to be in," Ms Paton said.
"We certainly hope that this becomes a hub for education, for research and also for an eco-tourism industry."
The plants for the seed garden were foraged "high and low through rain and shine" with some pulled from the freezer at South Australian Seed Conservation Centre.
Mr Bianco said roughly 60 species of endemic plants will be grown, but the process of obtaining the seeds wasn't an easy one.
"It's quite labour intensive to visit all the plants left in the wild, and currently some of the island's endemic plants are experiencing pollination deficiency," he said.
Community affair
The garden is a community project and currently, a friends-of-the-garden group is being set up to encourage the local community to take ownership of the garden's day-to-day running.
"At the end of the day, this project is for the island's community," Mr Bianco said.
"So, we're fostering and harnessing that enthusiasm and letting them steer and drive it with their own ideas."
Among other things, the garden will be a place for the public to discover plants that would be quite difficult to find growing in the wild.
"Some of these plants have not been recorded on Kangaroo Island before or seen for over a century," Mr Bianco said.
"It's a unique opportunity for both visitors and people from the local community to see and engage with the flora in one convenient, central location."
