Tom North: 'Kakadu – collecting, sweat and tears'

Tom North is Curator of the National Seed Bank. He will talk about trips to Kakadu at various times of the year in order to capture as much as possible the seasonal variance in fruiting and masting events for target species. 

Over the last four years the National Seed Bank has conducted six collecting trips to Kakadu National Park. These trips have been at various times of the year in order to capture as much as possible the seasonal variance in fruiting and masting events for target species. We have worked collaboratively with traditional owners, Parks staff and staff from the George Brown Botanic Gardens on collecting seed from species within Kakadu National Park. The trips are primarily to meet our commitment to conserving species from Commonwealth Parks but have also been an opportunity to learn from our collaborators and for us to teach skills in the scientific collection of seed and herbarium specimens. Tom will talk about some of the positive results from these collecting trips and where our collections are being used.

Tom North has been curator at the National Seed Bank for 5 years. Prior to this he has worked as Millennium Seed Bank – Australian Coordinator, based at Kings Park and Botanic Garden, Seed Bank Manager for Murray Seed Bank at Deniliquin and Plant Breeding with Yates Vegetable Seeds at Narromine. He studied Horticulture Science at University of Western Sydney - Hawkesbury and Plant Taxonomy at University of Edinburgh/RBG Edinburgh.