From 1990 to the present there has been a continuing rising demand for native plant seed from small groups/ individuals, commercial nurseries and in more recent times for large area direct seeding. Most of this demand has been driven by Government funding policy/incentives with the need to use local provenanced seed for revegetation.

The NSW Murray Catchment had the foresight in 1990 to see that if revegetation was ever going to succeed on a large scale using the guidelines, investment in its primary resource, local provenance seed, would be a primary goal.

Early coordination and collection efficiencies were gained by participation and coordination of the Central Murray Roadside Vegetation Management Group which produced survey maps of all shire roads with detailed species lists and conservation ratings for all sites.

Seed Banks were then established to meet supply needs and coordinate collection. More than just seed collection - strategic planning, delivery and technical support with long term continuity and direction was the hope of delivering affordable revegetation solutions from a sustainable resource. This work formed the basis for the identification within the catchment of areas with limited seed resources and collection boundaries.

Seed Production Areas then became a logical step to overcoming the inefficiencies of provenanced seed collection, whilst solving the problems of security of supply and poor vigour in remnant populations.

With the application of new technologies such as; Geographical Information Systems, we continue to monitor and improve our collection of data from roadside and reserve collection in order to better manage these areas for conservation.