Our Story

As people with a deep love and experience with the Australian bush, we knew how important it was to plant species local to our region but couldn’t always find what we needed. We wanted to know where the seed was harvested from, whether the plant was endemic to our area and where the seedling was grown. After spending years growing for conservation organisations and many a day planting in the field, we decided it was time to make local plants available in our own region, and Willunga Natives was born.More than just native Australian plants, our focus is on true local provenance, a term describing native plant populations growing naturally in a particular area. All of our seedlings are grown from seed stock collected from parent plants within the same population around Willunga, meaning they are better adapted to the conditions of our region. Not only does this help them to thrive in our local environment, but it is an important part of protecting and enhancing the biodiversity of the Fleurieu Peninsula.Supplying conservation organisations, revegetation projects and private landholders with native tubestock, we are helping to restore the natural wilderness and biodiversity of the Fleurieu Peninsula, rebuilding our soils, creating habitat for native flora and fauna and sequestering carbon from the atmosphere.At Willunga Natives we sell native tubestock grown from seed harvested near Willunga in the Southern Mount Lofty Ranges. Our trained seed collectors gather seed from a growing network of private landholdings and all our seedlings are raised in our nursery at Willunga South.But weren'y you Wollemi Natives originally? And why 'Wollemi' I hear you ask? Curiously, when Pete and Angela arrived at their Willunga Hills block where the nursery now resides there was a 4m high Wollemi Pine in the middle of a paddock. According to Wollemi Australia "the Wollemi Pine is one of the world's oldest and rarest plants dating back to the time of the dinosaurs, with less than 100 adult trees known to exist in the wild". Given the rarity, age and general mysteriousness of this tree, it become the nursery's name and mascot from launch until early 2025, at which point it was retired. In short - we got sick of telling the story and most folks called us "the Willunga nursery" anyways, so a name change seemed to make sense. The Wollemi Pine on the block is still going strong.Finally, if you're interested in growing more native species at your place, whether that's a single tree or a thousand, we'd love to hear from you. Similarly, if you are interested in being involved in seed collection or have mature local species on your property for seed collecting purposes, we'd also love to chat!

Our Team

ordering from us

We grow all our seedlings to order.Because most native seed needs to be potted up before Summer each year, we take orders between Winter and Spring for plants that will be ready to go in the ground the following June. We take orders for Winter-sown species between May and June each year, with orders for the remaining species open during Spring.The timeline below shows how it works.

We are now taking orders for Winter-sown species, closing 30 June 2025.

Winter - Spring

Check out the species we have available in the "What we grow" section below. Send us your order by the 30th June for Winter-sown species or 31st October for everything else so we can get growing for you.

Summer

Sit back and relax.

Autumn

Make sure your planting site is ready to go, take care of any weeds and get tree guards if you plan to use them.

Winter

We'll let you know when your seedlings are ready to collect for planting, usually in June.If you don't got your order in by the October deadline, we can often still help! Each winter, we have limited surplus stock available for purchase so if there's something you're after, then please get in touch.

important info

We're a small nursery entirely run by volunteers. We are now in our fifth year, and have learned that we need a bit of structure to keep Willunga Natives manageable for our volunteer team. Please keep in mind the following information when ordering.Our minimum order is 1 tray, which is 50 tubes. If you need less plants than that, please team up with some friends or consider the State Flora nursery in Belair, which is set up to handle smaller/retail orders.All orders are subject to seed availability and germination. We'll let you know asap if we can't supply everything on your order and work with you to find suitable replacements.Payment can only be made via bank transfer and we do not split bills. We can provide a receipt if desired.We do not supply Government, nor do we supply contractors undertaking a planting for a Government client. This is because we aim to reduce the cost of tubestock for landholders and community organisations, and we feel that Local and State Government's have their own budgets for restoration works.Plant orders must be received by the 31st October.Plants must be picked up by the 30th June. After this dates any remaining stock will be gifted to local conservation groups, refered to as our "overflow partners". If you are interested in being an overflow partner, please email us.Our nursery is not open to the public, as its our home as well as a plant nursery.Plant pickup will be advised closer to the planting season. Please only come during the times specified and we urge you not to ask for special times, as refusal may offend. If you can't get there, ask a friend who can.Before picking up plants, you must have paid in full. We do not accept cash or payment on pickup.

Orders and Pricing

• NOW OPEN FOR ORDERS FOR WINTER SOWN SPECIES

We are now taking orders for winter sown species, with orders open until June 30 2025. These species will be available for collection along with the remainder of our species shown below. Have a look at the list of winter sown species below in "What We Grow". There is no minimum order for these species.Orders for the remaining species will open in Spring. Species available for order at this time will be shown in the "What We Grow" section.Seedlings are $1.50 each, with a minimum order for these species of 50 plants (1 tray). This can be a mix of many different species if desired.If you've got any questions, give our chief grower Ange a call on 0422 582 903 or send us an email at [email protected].To place an order, follow the link below to our online order form.

• Complete our Order Form

What WE GROW

The following table shows details for winter sown species, now available for order until the end of June.

KEEP IN TOUCH

Want to be notified when orders open? Or when your plants are ready for pickup? Subscribe to our mailing list below and we'll keep you updated (max. 4 times a year).

Outside the nursery

About 5 years ago we founded Willunga Natives (then Wollemi Natives) to fulfill a need we saw in the local ecosystem restoration sector. That need was a supply of high quality, local provenance, affordable native tubestock.But plant supply isn't the only hurdle we see preventing landholders doing more restoration work. Time, cost, knowledge, skills, physical condition and awareness of the issue are all roadblocks to more work getting done.The Willunga Natives team is working on ways to reduce some of these other barriers too. We do this through:

CONTACT US

Connect with us via email, social media or mobile.Please note, our nursery is not open to the public and visits/plant pickup are strictly by appointment only.Ange: 0422 582 903
[email protected]

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