Case Studies
Connecting habitats and people
Community members plant a rich diversity of Indigenous plants along a stretch of the Merri Creek escarpment during Riverfest 2025. As well as supplying thousands of plants each year, VINC has supported many special projects through its long-term relationship with the Merri Creek Management Committee. These include seed orcharding of rare and threatened wildflower species, supplying plants to support native pollinating insects that aid wildflower regeneration, and growing specialised plant species to enhance bird habitat in areas impacted by urban infrastructure.
Using seed sourced from north-west Melbourne, VINC also propagated and supplied 150 Banksia marginata seedlings, a species that once occurred naturally along the Merri corridor but is now locally extinct. The aim is to reintroduce a small forest of genetically diverse plants along the Merri and create a future seed source for revegetating the catchment.
Photo credit: City of Yarra
Transformation at scale
Melbourne General Cemetery was established in the 1850s as a huge public park occupying 43 hectares. Since then, the original grassy woodland has become home to more than 300,000 burial sites with the loss of indigenous plants and wildlife.
VINC is proud to have helped change that by supplying 90,000 local grassland plants to Project Cultivate – a visionary program to restore a beautiful, biodiverse landscape on the historic site.
The stunning rejuvenation, celebrated on Gardening Australia, has greatly reduced the need for herbicides and water, transforming hot, unattractive areas of the cemetery into inspiring, meaningful public spaces. The air temperature has dropped 3°C in mulched and planted areas, soil quality has improved and small birds are able to gather nest materials.
Photo credit: Andy O’Connor, Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust
The success of Project Cultivate at Melbourne General Cemetery has been underpinned by strong partnerships with local indigenous nurseries, including the Victorian Indigenous Nursery Co‑Op, whose involvement exemplifies best practice in provenance-led restoration. VINC supplied approximately 90,000 locally indigenous grassland plants grown from known, traceable seed sources, ensuring alignment with the site’s Ecological Vegetation Class. Beyond plant supply, their commitment to ecological integrity extended to on-site seed collection: seed harvested from established areas of the cemetery—including first-year plantings—was carefully banked and re-distributed for use in the project’s third year. This closed-loop approach not only strengthened genetic continuity across the site, but also demonstrated a long-term investment in local seed sovereignty, resilience, and the development of reliable indigenous seed banks.
Importantly, the influence of Project Cultivate now extends well beyond Victoria. The project has become a reference point for cemetery managers nationally, with its principles of minimal input, provenance-focused indigenous planting, and passive maintenance informing broader industry practice. This includes recognition at a regulatory level, with Project Cultivate–aligned approaches now reflected in guidance adopted by NSW Cemetery Regulators, signalling a nationwide shift in how cemeteries can be managed as ecologically functional landscapes. In this way, Project Cultivate demonstrates how locally grounded partnerships—such as that with VINC —can catalyse change at scale, embedding biodiversity, cultural responsibility, and environmental stewardship into the future of cemetery management across Australia.
Helen Tuton, Horticulture Assets Manager, Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust
Bringing back nature
This mass riparian planting at Quarries Park is part of the City of Yarra’s Bringing Nature Back program, which encourages the return of local native species to urban areas where they have become uncommon, rare, or locally extinct. VINC’s multi-year partnership with the Council has helped mitigate climate impacts, conserve locally rare or threatened flora, increase habitat connectivity, and create local native seed orchards for the collection of seed of known provenance for future regeneration projects.
Photo credit: City of Yarra
“For more than 25 years, Victorian Indigenous Nursery Co‑operative (VINC) has played a vital role in supporting Yarra City Council’s habitat restoration objectives and community nature engagement programs. As the sole supplier of plant species propagated from parent material sourced within Yarra bushland areas, VINC continues to provide a large diversity of quality tubestock that assists in healing Wurrundjeri country. This enables habitat restoration works to achieve accurate reinstatement of pre‑colonisation Ecological Vegetation Classes (EVCs) through use of resilient local provenance species.
Beyond plant supply, VINC contributes significantly to community education through its accessible, community‑facing nursery and associated engagement activities. The organisation is also a key delivery partner for several of Yarra’s priority community nature engagement initiatives, including My Smart Gardens and Community Street Garden Program.”
Craig Lupton, Senior Biodiversity Officer, City of Yarra
Recovering endangered species
Geranium sp. 1, a plant endemic to Victoria, was thought to be extinct until it was rediscovered in 2000. The North Western Program Alliance collected seed from parent plants before they were destroyed by the Glenroy Level Crossing Removal Project. VINC then propagated plants from each individual parent plant and established an in-house production area to provide a permanent seed source to help protect this critically endangered species. Hundreds of these geraniums have since been planted in notable reserves throughout Melbourne’s northern and western suburbs.
Photo credit: City of Brimbank
From public parks to nature strips
Every year VINC supplies Banyule City Council with thousands of plants comprising scores of species for individual projects throughout the area. In 2025, we helped select species suitable for nature strip plantings, which were compiled into a guide for residents and community groups with big uptake.
Photo: National Tree, Day, Banyule City Council Community tree planting event.