The Missionary Sisters of Service are pleased to support and celebrate community-led initiatives that nurture both people and the land. When communities come together to care for Country, something deeper is also grown—connection, responsibility, and hope.
Thanks to co-funding from Mary MacKillop Today Highways and Byways Small Grants program, NSW Government Environment Trust and Koala Strategy, and the Landscape Resilience Program of the Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife, the Southern Tablelands Tree Start Growers Network are making an important contribution and impact. It’s with pleasure that we share their story:
The Southern Tablelands Tree Start Growers Network has celebrated the conclusion of its second successful growing season, with local volunteers once again making a significant contribution to native revegetation efforts across the region in NSW.
Launched in 2024, this grassroots program brings together volunteers to grow native seedlings from home. Now in its second year, the Network continues to build momentum, delivering strong outcomes for Landcare groups and local landscapes.
During the 2025–26 growing season, more than 80 volunteer growers took part across an area spanning from Cooma to Goulburn, and Oallen to Rosedale. Thanks to their dedication, over 10,000 native tubestock have already been returned, with hundreds more now in the hands of landholders, ready for planting this autumn. This milestone reflects both the growing strength of the Network and the willingness of local community members to grow native seedlings from seed in their own backyards.
The Growers Network is delivered in partnership by Upper Shoalhaven Landcare Council, Upper Murrumbidgee Landcare Network and Wagtail Natives Nursery, providing propagation kits and ongoing support to growers across the Queanbeyan–Palerang and northern Snowy Monaro regions. Together, they are helping to build a reliable supply of locally grown native plants for revegetation projects.
The season concluded with the annual ‘March Tubestock Round Up’, where thousands of plants were collected from growers in Bungendore, Cooma, Braidwood and Michelago, and delivered to the Landcare Nursery Hub at Aurelia Metals’ Dargues site in Majors Creek.
On Tuesday 31 March, 22 volunteers gathered for a Working Bee at the Nursery Hub to stocktake and prepare plants for redistribution. Over the course of the day, they unpacked 530 propagation kits, sorted and counted more than 10,000 tubestock, assembled nursery benches, processed hundreds of recycled pots and soil, and loaded nearly 1,000 plants, stakes and guards for delivery to planting sites across the Upper Murrumbidgee catchment.
The Working Bee was highly productive, made possible through the continued support of Aurelia Metals at its Dargues site. Their lease agreement with Landcare allows the former geology shed to be used as a regional hub for propagation efforts, including a polytunnel and storage for Growers Network supplies.
With the polytunnel now full, volunteer growers can enjoy a well-earned winter break. Preparations are already underway for the program to recommence in September, with expressions of interest for the 2026–27 growing season opening in July. Could you take care of 200 native seedlings, perhaps?
The program is proudly co‑funded by the NSW Government Environment Trust and Koala Strategy, Mary MacKillop Today Highways and Byways, and the Landscape Resilience Program of the Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife.
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Volunteer Grower Ann (left) with Landcare Coordinator Georgeanna (right) and a full trailer of returned plants at the Cooma March Tubestock Round Up Session on Saturday 21st March,
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Working Bee volunteers unpacking propagation kits to reuse and recycle for the 2026-27 growing season.
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Landcare volunteers counting and sorting all the native plants returned by the Growers network in the 2025-26 growing season.
