Deputy premier to open UQ Gatton Greenhouse for award-winning plant
Deputy Premier Jim Elder MLA will open a new greenhouse at the University of Queensland's Gatton campus this month to assist the development of an award-winning native plant.
Mr Elder, who is also Minister for State Development and Minister for Trade, will attend the ceremony at the Foundation Building, UQ Gatton on Thursday, November 4 at 10am.
The new facility, to be known as the Birkdale Greenhouse, was specifically built for a project to develop the Koala Fern, winner of the "Best New Plant" at the prestigious Floralies Internationales de Nantes exhibition in France in May this year.
For the past decade, Caustis (Koala Fern) has been developed for the lucrative native plant export market by a joint Gatton College-Birkdale Nursery research team headed by School of Land and Food senior lecturer Dr Margaret Johnston. The project received Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation funding between 1993 and 1997.
The collaboration with Birkdale Nursery recently culminated in a $1.9 million grant from the company and the Federal Department of Industry Science and Technology's R & D START grant initiative to develop Caustis and four other species for the market.
Native cut flowers alone were worth $34 million in exports in 1998. However, only a limited number of species including Geraldton Wax, Kangaroo Paw and Rice Flower can be exported because of difficulties in propagating most other native commercially.
Koala fern is native to sandy areas between Maryborough and Kempsey. Dr Johnston said the plant was in demand as cut foliage and in pots because of its glossy, "fluffy" bright green foliage and bamboo-like stems.
"Our research in collaboration with Birkdale Nursery staff has resulted in a propagation system for Caustis and a number of forms for different uses," Dr Johnston said. The University, through its technology commercialisation company UniQuest Pty Limited, is currently applying for plant breeders' rights or "plant patents" for these forms. Provisional plant breeders rights on one cultivar, Forest Fantasy, were accepted in September.
Established more than 40 years ago, Birkdale Nursery was purchased by James and Barbara McGeoch in 1982. Over the past nine years, it has developed substantial export markets for ornamental horticultural products in North Asia, South-East Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the Pacific Islands.
For more information, contact Dr Johnston (telephone 07 54 601 240 or mobile 0412 338 546) or Barbara McGeoch (telephone 07 3207 2533).
