Click here to help secure the future of the QTPN – matched donations until 30 June!

For the last 3 years, Plant Conservation Australia has received government funding to pilot the Queensland Threatened Plant Network. In this time, the QTPN has achieved great things (see here for a some highlight slides). However, this funding runs out in June 2026 and the Network’s future remains uncertain. We have now drafted a funding strategy to help us in our efforts to become self funded, and you can help as we transition to this next phase. We’re excited to announce that one of the Network’s champions Professor Hugh Possingham has agreed to match every donation to QTPN up to $5,000 before 30 June 2026!

The QTPN provides community and traditional owner groups with the essential skills required to recover some of the rarest plants in Queensland. These groups and individuals within them are the mainstay of threatened plant conservation. They are connected to place, nurture and sustain relationships within their communities, are there for the long-term, and bring substantial local knowledge to the creation and implementation of management actions designed to recover threatened flora.

It is critical that the Network continues to be resourced to enable the protection of the most imperilled native plants in our most biodiverse state.

Highlights of some of the Flora Survey Training Workshops undertaken over the past few years.

Queensland’s unique native plants are under threat — and you can help save them.

Queensland has the highest biodiversity in Australia with over 14,000 species of native plants and allied species, of which more than one-third are endemic. Of all Queensland’s threatened species, over 1000 (77%) are plants! Many of these plants are poorly known and under-surveyed. Without baseline data on population size and trajectory, it is very difficult to develop and implement recovery plans and actions.

Please donate to the QTPN here and double your impact!

Since early 2024, QTPN has trained and presented to more than 1500 community members, coordinated over 40 threatened flora surveys and facilitated the development of the first Traditional Owner-led Flora Recovery Plan in Queensland.

There is an urgent need to empower community-based volunteer groups and citizen scientists in Queensland to undertake targeted flora surveys and fill key gaps in our knowledge of threatened plant species.

QTPN’s Flora Survey Training Workshops help volunteer groups build their capacity to conduct such strategic and highly valuable population surveys of rare flora, using Queensland Herbarium-endorsed flora survey techniques. These workshops have proved very popular and are increasing in demand. We urgently need more funding to roll out more workshops across the state.

Real life flora surveys are a core component of these practical workshops and are already having valuable results. At one recent Flora Survey Training Workshop in May, 25 Acacia attenuata (Vulnerable) individuals were recorded in Burleigh Knoll Conservation Park. This is the only known remaining location for this wattle south of Brisbane. To top off the day, a Friends of Parks Queensland Volunteer Coordinator found two Cryptocarya foetida trees (also Vulnerable), a species once thought lost from this Park.

We are also working on an iNaturalist citizen science project which will add value to listed threatened plant observations by encouraging observers to add fields relevant to conservation assessment.

Your gift will help us deliver more Flora Survey Training Workshops for community-based environmental groups. This will ultimately assist in the long-term planning, implementation and monitoring of recovery actions for threatened plant species in Queensland. Trained community members will be equipped to:

• survey poorly known plant species (especially those critically endangered and endangered).
• record new threatened species populations (especially on recently acquired protected areas, many of which are under-surveyed).
• provide information on plant populations that can be used to improve/refine actions in Recovery Action Plans.

QTPN workshop participant: “Your presentation and notes recently on endangered botanical species were just the fodder for me. I have been scouting Mt. Tinbeerwah for nearly 30 years and I printed out info thanks to the useful web connections you supplied at the workshop. Yesterday, three of us found Prostanthera spathulata in flower. Today I went back and counted over 20 plants in flower. I was and am so excited and thank you for your inspiration. I shall be on the lookout on my continued exploration of this wonderful mountain. I just want to say the work you do is extremely important and is an amazing contribution to the preservation of the botanical world, so thank you.”

Paul Donatiu and others dedicated to Queensland’s native plants have shown what can be achieved in boosting our knowledge of threatened species. With your support, we can scale up these vital conservation efforts today.

Help protect Queensland’s native plants — your support will make a real difference! Whether it’s $50, $100, or a major gift of *$5,000, every donation helps safeguard our unique flora for future generations.

Your contribution will power vital conservation work, and donations of $2 or more to Plant Conservation Australia are tax deductible.

*Organisations donating $5,000 or more will be proudly recognised as workshop sponsors, with their logo featured across our promotions, showcasing their leadership in supporting Queensland’s native plant conservation.