Bradley Desmond ‘The Rare Bloom Project: A partnership approach to conserving Australian wildflowers’

Abstract
With over 1,300 Australian species nationally listed as threatened, the Australian Seed Bank Partnership are taking action to safeguard our native flora. In 2021, the Partnership embarked on a three-year collaboration with WWF-Australia and Botanica by Air Wick to deliver The Rare Bloom Project. This project supports a national program of conservation actions including proactive seed collecting, germination trials, rapid flora assessments, propagation, reintroductions, and long-term seed banking of some of Australia’s rarest wildflowers. The collaboration aims to improve conservation outcomes for 120 of Australia’s native wildflowers from fire affected and high-conservation-value areas, securing plants from the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, the Northern Territory, South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia. Join us for a presentation by Mr Brad Desmond, the Partnership’s Assistant Coordinator, who will discuss the ongoing need for ex situ plant conservation in Australia, and the country-wide accomplishments of the Rare Bloom Project. 

Biography 
Brad is the Assistant Coordinator of the Australian Seed Bank Partnership - Australia’s only national alliance of conservation seed banks. Hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens on Ngunnawal country, Bradley facilitates collaborative seed banking, research and knowledge sharing initiatives on behalf of the Partnership. An environmental scientist with 10 years’ experience in NGO, industry and public service sectors, Bradley provides support to the Council of Heads of Australian Botanic Gardens (CHABG) to deliver better outcomes for native plant conservation.

Booking link: https://www.trybooking.com/COAWG

Booking
Lunchtime talks are held at 12.30 pm every Thursday from February to November. Talks last for 1 hour. We welcome donations by gold coins, notes, or electronically. The Friends use donations received at each talk to support Gardens’ programs and development and we thank all those who have donated. 

Unless otherwise indicated, talks are held in the ANBG Theatrette.

It is a good idea to reserve a seat at the talks that you wish to attend; talks may be booked out very quickly.  Bookings can be made from about 30 days in advance until the night before the talk or until seating limits are reached. 

Booking link: https://www.trybooking.com/COAWG

The Friends of the ANBG thank the speakers who volunteer their time and talents to further the knowledge of all attending events in the Gardens. Many summaries or PowerPoint presentations of Thursday talks are available to Friends at the ANBG library. Please direct queries about the talks to the Thursday Talks Team: email talks@friendsanbg.org.au.