Australian Natural Resources Atlas

Natural Resource Topics

Agriculture - National Horticulture Industry Profiles - Nurseries

Nurseries

The Australian nursery industry is represented by all states and territories, with the greatest volume of production concentrated in the eastern States.

The industry has a wide member base covering production, wholesale, landscape, retail, plant hire and allied trades. It has a product range of tubestock to in-ground products to potting media.

In 1996/97 the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated that there were around 3050 businesses involved in nursery production with the majority of those located in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. In the same year the farm gate value of plant material sold from production nurseries was around $540 m. Industry estimates are significantly higher.

Production nurseries sell plant material to a range of market sectors, the key ones being garden centres and retail nurseries, landscapers, production horticulturists, other nurseries for growing on, wholesale markets and revegetation groups such as Greening Australia. Most production is sold on the domestic market. Exports are less than 1% of total production.

Priority areas for R&D include the implementation of waste audit and reduction strategies, the safe handling, use and storage of chemicals, and the sustainable use of water, energy and land so that off-site impacts are minimised.

Percentage of total area Agro-ecological region

Major production regions

Region Agro-ecological region Area
(ha)		 Production
(t)		 Value
($m)		 % of total crop area
Yarra Ranges Wet temperate coasts 300 dns 27.7 6
Hornsby/Baulkam Hills Wet temperate coasts 190 dns 14.2 4
Cairns Wet tropical coasts 120 dns 10.0 3
Manjimup Wet temperate coasts 110 dns 6.9 2
Perth Wet temperate coasts 100 dns 6.2 2

Industry contact

Nursery Industry Association of Australia: PO Box 907, Epping, New South Wales 2121; telephone: (02) 9876 5200;
email: niaa@ozemail.com.au; website: www.niaa.org.au/

Production and value data sources

Horticultural Research and Development Corporation 2000, Horticultural Productivity and Sustainability Project

Australian Bureau of Statistics 1996, AgStats 1996-97

National Land and Water Resources Audit 2000, non-agricultural land mask from 1:1 000 000 Landuse in Australia

Agriculture Fisheries Forestry - Australia 1996, Agro-ecological Regions of Australia

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