City's nursery secures Nursery Industry Accreditation

The City's plant nursery has secured accreditation from Nursery Industry Accreditation Scheme Australia (NIASA) demonstrating the highest standards in management practices within the nursery.

NIASA is a national scheme for production nurseries which operate in accordance with a set of national ‘best practice' guidelines.

An audit and risk based assessment of the nursery was undertaken last year to identify areas of potential disease incursions or distribution, guide the nursery to refine its processes and procedures to grow plants more efficiently, and facilitate the nursery to achieve its goal of providing quality plants for revegetation programs throughout the City.

Accreditation was awarded on 24 December 2020 and the nursery will undergo inspections every six months to ensure it maintains its high standards.

NIASA is one of three programs within the Australian Plant Production Standard. It is nationally recognised as the only program that guides and encourages best management practices within a nursery.

There are over 50 IASA accredited businesses and just two accredited local governments in Western Australia. The City of South Perth nursery will join City of Stirling, Kings Park Botanical Gardens, Benara Nurseries, Domus Nursery, Plantrite, Floraplant and South Metro TAFE as an accredited supplier.

The City’s nursery in Como is one of the largest local government nurseries in metropolitan Perth.

The nursery produces more than 450 different species of plants and 55 species of trees for projects throughout the City as well as other local councils including Perth, Victoria Park, Subiaco, Belmont, Canning, New Norcia, Kalamunda and Fremantle.

In 2019/20 the nursery produced over 42,500 plants for revegetation works, natural areas planting, street tree planting, and riverbank stabilisation.