ARCHIVED October 2025
OUR REQUIREMENTS & WHY
NOSSA has previously been looking for alternative accommodation, however, it has now become urgent due to an increasing charges at our current location. This will happen of 1st June 2024. It will be beyond our resources.
We can be flexible but our ideal is
- Space for shadehouse – 120m2 with access to water (which is minimal)
- For ongoing production of flasked orchids – ideally 4 rooms (about 60-100m2), with electricity, water & sink (and toilet facilities).
- If we cannot continue uninterrupted functioning, a temporary storage space will be needed for the equipment and the orchids.
- Location – within the Adelaide region
Contact
If you have any suggestions or are able to help, contact the NOSSA secretary, Lindy McCallum via email – nossa.secretary@gmail.com
ABOUT NOSSA
The Native Orchid Society of South Australis (NOSSA) is managed entirely by volunteers and has been active in a wide range of native orchid projects since 1977. Our leading founder, Roy Hargraves was awarded an OAM for his work with native orchids and started an organization with objectives covering conservation, cultivation, and education. Many of our 200 members, some living overseas or interstate, are actively committed to the various NOSSA projects. NOSSA has supported the publishing of orchid books, survey work, weed control, research, and citizen science projects. The first president of the Society continues with us today and is our leading expert at our Les Nesbitt Native Orchid Propagation Facility, named in his honour to acknowledge the education he has freely given to generations of native orchid growers.
This video featuring Les Nesbitt explains some more about the work of NOSSA and why the orchids are of importance to conservation – https://youtu.be/SXTgr6HQioA?si=xVJ50-movTZUYkIG
ABOUT THE WORK OF THE ORCHID PROPAGATION FACILITY
The Facility has been in operation for just under 3 years and, with the aid of about 25 volunteers, along with the amazing knowledge of highly skilled members, we are emerging as a significant supplier of South Australia’s native terrestrial orchids.
These amazing, vulnerable plants are important to our biodiversity and have been likened to the canary in the mine – the are environmental indicators. Once they were abundant and older people often recall when they would pick bunches of native orchids!
NOSSA has the equipment, and skilled members, to produce native orchid plants from seed, using sterile techniques to sow the tiny (smaller than fine pepper) orchid seeds onto agar to germinate. It might sound simple, but it takes the use of an autoclave to sterilize the agar and equipment, a laminar flow cabinet to provide a sterile condition for sowing the seeds on the nutrient rich agar. Contamination from microbes is to be avoided at all cost! As the tiny plants grow, they are transferred to larger flasks and when mature enough, they can be transferred to pots to continue growing in a growing room before being finally placed into the shadehouse.
We understand that NOSSA is one of the few suppliers of a vulnerable species that was once found over a wide area of the Adelaide Hills. NOSSA propagated over 900 plants of the rare donkey orchid (Diuris behrii) from 80 original plants rescued from a mine site at Callington. some of these orchids have even recently reintroduced at a restoration site in the Adelaide Hills.
As part of our fundraising efforts, we have supplied native terrestrial orchids to to restoration projects at Charleston and Kangarilla and are in the process of negotiating with another Friends Group.
We also supply, both terrestrial and epiphytic (grow on trees) orchids to a retail outlet, a variety of plant sales and our own annual NOSSA Orchid Show.
We also rehouse donated orchids (often from deceased estates or downsizing). These orchids may become part of our stock plant collection or sold to the public for funding the work of the facility.
The facility now raises enough to cover the costs of consumables by selling terrestrial and epiphytic orchids whilst NOSSA has been covering the utility and rent costs. This is now no longer viable.
A BIG THANK YOU
We would like to thank the following groups for their invaluable support – Friends of Parks, ForestrySA, Green Adelaide, PAE Council, the Australian Orchid Foundation and NOSSA members, for their support over the past 3 years in providing funds and equipment – shade houses, lawnmower, lab equipment, pot stands, and autoclave.
Thank you for your invaluable support.
NOSSA 