Australia

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Australias Virtual Herbarium

• Unlocking Australias
• plant biodiversity Information

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• Australias biodiversity is at risk from
  inappropriate land management practices and
  historical ignorance of the implications.
• We know a lot about what not to do, but
  redressing the damage, and managing better for
  the future, requires sound information about our
  biodiversity - what was here, and where it lived.

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• Information on plant identity and location is
  derived from herbarium specimen records.
• These records are the building blocks for plant
  taxonomy and classification.

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• Australias Virtual Herbarium will provide access
  to the combined information on each individual
  herbarium specimen in Australias major herbaria.

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Access is being made progressively available on
the Internet.

• The internet will provide quicker and easier
  access and use, and wider availability.

The AVH is unique and a world first
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The AVH is a collaborative project of the State,
Commonwealth and Territory herbaria.It is being
developed under the auspices of the Council of
Heads of Australian Herbaria (CHAH),
representing the major Australian herbarium
collections.Each herbarium retains
custodianship and is responsible for management
of its own data as part of the national
distributed database.
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Contribution of specimen data by major herbarium
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• Applications and benefits include
• easy and quick access to authoritative plant
  information
• mapping geographic distribution of plants
• location and mapping of rare and threatened
  species
• historical and baseline information for
  revegetation programs
• assist with selection of suitable and adequate
  conservation reserves
• better informed environmental planning

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• Potential users include
• farmers
• Landcare groups
• revegetation groups
• Greening Australia
• natural resource managers
• government agencies
• local government
• indigenous communities
• schools and educational institutions
• mining industry

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• Case Study

In 1999, the Harden Murrumburrah Landcare Group
approached the Australian National Herbarium for
help with revegetating their land with the
original native plants of the region.
1907
With only 2.8 percent of the original native
vegetation remaining from widespread landclearing
in the Harden Shire, landholders had to largely
guess what once grew there.
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• Herbarium records were searched to compile a list
  of all the plants collected from the Harden
  region since 1770.
• The records also provided information on soils
  and associated species. Local landholders and
  those with specialised knowledge then added to
  this pool of data, eg how to propagate and where
  to plant them.
• This data is available through the web to the
  Landcare group to plan their revegetation work.

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• A critical first step in building the AVH is to
  capture and load the information contained in
  Australias six million herbarium specimens in a
  standard format within the next five years

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The databasing task - 3.3 million specimens
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This task is calculated to cost 10 million.

• Commonwealth and State and Territory Governments
  agreed in 2001 to contribute 7,830,000 on the
  basis that a further 2,000,000 would be raised
  from the private sector over the next five years
  to complete the project.

The AVH Trust was established in late 2001 to
coordinate the fund raising for this project.
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The AVH Trust is registered and donations are
tax-deductible.
Environment Australia is acting as the agent for
receipt and disbursement of funds, both
Commonwealth and private sector, to the
individual herbaria on advice and agreement from
CHAH.
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Supporting the AVH Trust offers the opportunity
to participate in

• a collaborative national project supported by the
  Commonwealth, State and Territory governments and
  involving many of Australias leading scientific
  institutions
• an ethical and green initiative
• internationally innovative technology - a
  world-first
• encouraging discovery and understanding of the
  plant world
• unlocking Australias plant biodiversity
  information for all users

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Private financial supporters will be acknowledged
appropriately on the AVH website and in any other
promotional or educational material about the
AVH.
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• Trustees
• Peter Cochrane, Director of National Parks,
  Environment Australia (Chair)
• Margaret Ross, Chair John T Reid Charitable Trust
• Ian Blackburne, Chair Royal Botanic Gardens
  Sydney Trust
• Allan Holmes, Chief Executive, Department for
  Environment and Heritage, South Australia
• Executive Officer Helen Halliday, Environment
  Australia

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• Herbaria associated with the AVH are located in
  every capital city of Australia.To arrange an
  inspection to discover more about their relevance
  to conservation and land management please
  contact the relevant Director

• Phone
• 08 8222 9326
• 07 3896 9325
• 02 6246 5113
• 08 8922 0809
• 03 6226 2635
• 03 9252 2300
• 08 9334 0500
• 02 9231 8113

City Adelaide Brisbane Canberra Darwin Hobart Melb
ourne Perth Sydney
Director Dr Laurie Haegi Dr Gordon Guymer Dr Judy
West Dr Greg Leach Dr Gintaras Kantvilas Professor
Jim Ross Dr Neville Marchant Dr Tim Entwisle
Email haegi.laurie_at_saugov.sa.gov.au gordon.guymer_at_
env.qld.gov.au judy.west_at_csiro.au greg.leach_at_nt.go
v.au gkantvilas_at_tmag.tas.gov.au jim.ross_at_rbg.vic.g
ov.au nevillem_at_calm.wa.gov.au tim.entwisle_at_rbgsyd.
nsw.gov.au
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Australias Virtual Herbarium

• Unlocking Australias
• plant biodiversity Information