Case Studies

Shamrock Plants is located at Carbrook in Brisbane's southern suburbs, with the business being owned and operated by Joe & Jodie Eliasaf. Shamrock Plants are specialist growers of gerberas, garvineas, mini roses, lavender, and other flowering lines; selling to retail nurseries and big box stores.

Kingfisher Wholesale Nursery is located at Clagiraba in the Gold Coast hinterland, and is owned and operated by Chris and Jodie Sturt along with a staff of four. Kingfisher Wholesale Nursery is a specialist grower of new release PBR and Trademarked plants, as well as general landscape lines supplying both the retail and landscape sectors.

Australis Plants is owned and operated by Greg O’Sullivan, and specializes in olive and other fruit trees, as well as the production of grafted native plants. The main market is commercial growers and wholesale nurseries throughout Australia, and to a lesser extent overseas clients.

This article discusses the results of energy audits conducted by NGIQ for the QFF Energy Savers Plus Program Extension (ESPPE) funded by the Queensland Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy.

The Mackay Natural Environment Centre (MNEC), located in North Mackay, is one of the nurseries operated by the Mackay Regional Council. The nursery operates with one full-time nursery supervisor, two part-time nursery assistants, and 30 volunteers who attend two mornings per week.

This video describes how using a biological water clarifier was used to improve water quality in a nursery water storage. The storage contained increasing levels of algae, plankton and surface floating weeds, leading to costly management and maintenance activities, crop production issues and an unpleasant odour. Ten weeks into the treatment, the water turbidity had significantly improved, algal blooms had disappeared, and the previous unpleasant odour was no longer evident.

Fitzroy Nurseries is a third generation nursery located at Pink Lilly on the Fitzroy River near Rockhampton. As markets and production methods have changed over the years, and with an increase in demand for product, the decision was made to increase the containerised growing area to meet the increasing demand.

Ibrox Park Nursery is located at Burbank in the eastern suburbs of Brisbane, and offers a wide range of plants and services to commercial landscape customers, produced from nearly 3 ha of growing area by a staff of 23 .

Benaraby Junction Nursery, located near Gladstone, is a production nursery supplying their own retail facility as well as landscaping projects in the region. Over a period of 21 years Colin Olsen and Judy Turner have implemented a number of water efficiency measures both prior to, and during the Rural Water Use Efficiency.

The Portable Weight Based Scheduling Tool (PWBST) has been developed under the South East Queensland Irrigation Futures (SEQ-IF) program by the National Centre for Engineering in Agriculture (NCEA) at the
University of Southern Queensland.