Neville Bonney prolific writer and educator in South Australia on importance of native plants in conservation
South Australia's Neville Bonney and some of his books promoting Australian native plants and their importance in conservation. With friend and fellow keen conservationist John Del Fabbro, Bonney started the Kitticoola dryland arboretum of native plants on the outskirts of Palmer, just east of the Adelaide Hills.
Images courtesy Nevillle Bonney
Neville Bonney, a prolific author and educator regarding Australian native plants as part of highlighting the importance of conservation, was inducted into the South Australian environment hall of fame in 2023. Ethnobiologist (studying the dynamic relationships among peoples, biota and environments) was another aspect of Bonney’s expertise.
Bonney’s link to the land started as a boy in the 1940s, spending time with his grandfather among the once expansive stringybark forest on the Mount Burr Ranges in the South Australia’s southeast. The mature trees and their vast array of understory plants were the perfect habitat for pollinating insects and diverse birdlife that entranced young Bonney. Cracking branches and screeching birds when bulldozers cut through that bushland became an even stronger memory, igniting his environmental crusade
The importance of seed in reviving land prompted Bonney to commercially collect them from a wide range of native plants. He ran own native plant nursery and was involved with Greening Australia and TAFE (Technical and Further Education) South Australia. What seed is that?, written by Bonney and published in 1994, was the result of years in the outback identifying plants and gathering their important seeds.
With friend and fellow keen conservationist John Del Fabbro, Bonney started the six-hectare Kitticoola dryland arboretum on the outskirts of Palmer, just east of the Adelaide Hills region, on the former copper and gold mine site. To educate and demonstrate regenerative tree farming, the semi-arid space become home to many edible Australian native foods, medicinal plants and rare inland species. Desert fig, sandalwood, quandong, desert oak, arid eucalyptus species and many more were successfully grown, showing their potential for commercial dryland farming.
Workshops run by Bonney at the Kitticoola arboretum gave experiences including picking finger limes, sampling sandalwood nuts, harvesting muntries, plus making and drying wattle seed cakes. Bonney was a strong advocate for creating markets for native edibles in Australia and internationally. Quandongs were a key plant in the arboretum.
Bonney’s book, From one small seed: A forest is born tapped into his passion for growing plants. It covered a gamut of topics including the importance of seed diversity, flower pollinators, checking seed viability and germination techniques
