Launch of innovative computer guide to native plants for revegetation

29/8/96

An innovative new computer guide to Australian native plants for revegetation and land rehabilitation was launched today by Primary Industry Monty House and Environment Minister Peter Foss.

The Ministers said the computer guide - known as REX '96 (Revegetation Expert Software) - delivered a powerful new source of information on Australian plants for anyone from land managers to home gardeners.

REX '96 was a 'user friendly' program which matched the most up-to-date technology with increasing industry and community interest in revegetation and land rehabilitation.

"The program is principally aimed at rural revegetation and rehabilitation," Mr House said.

"However, its use extends past primary producers and landcare groups to local government, private sector advisers and consultants, gardeners, landscapers, schools and many other groups and individuals.

"REX '96 solves the problems many people have finding the right plant for the right place or for a given purpose."

The Minister said that traditionally, people had spent a lot of time, money and effort looking through scattered sources of information resulting in a limited number of species being planted year after year.

This overlooked plants that might be much better suited to the purpose and also failed to acknowledge Australia's huge range of plant species.

"While trees are a big part of rural revegetation and shrubs attract the attention of gardeners, REX '96 aims at expanding interest in more comprehensive approaches to revegetation by including plants from trees to grasses and ferns," Mr Foss said.

"It is also important that we expand the use of plants with strong nature conservation values. "The new database recognises this through the inclusion of many under-storey plants and details of plant characters which include their value in nature habitats, wildlife food supplies and nesting habitats."

The development of REX '96 over four years was a collaborative Western Australian initiative by Agriculture Western Australia, the Department of Conservation and Land Management and Greening WA with funding support from the National Landcare Program and the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation.

The new software has national applications and is expected to be in demand throughout Australia.

Only basic computer skills are needed to operated the program. However, it allows for experience and even encourages users to become more skilled in their searches for information.

REX '96 includes extensive notes on nearly 2,400 plants from across Australia, an easy and powerful searching system which includes hundreds of plant characteristics, a glossary of important terms, multi-media articles on revegetation issues, and a built-in reporting and word processing system.

The CD ROM version also provides more than 640 colour full-screen photographs.

Commercial sales of the program will support future development of the program.

The agencies involved intend to produce annual updates and improvements that will cover more plants, more information on each plant, more photographs, and a greatly expanded set of feature articles on revegetation planning and design.

REX '96 has been designed to run under the Windows© operating system, on an IBM compatible personal computer. The minimum necessary requirements are a 386DX computer with 8MB of RAM, Windows 3.1 or better, a VGA display, mouse and 20MB of space on the hard drive.

The recommended system would have at least a 486DX, 8MB of RAM, super VGA (256 colour), a mouse, and CD ROM (for photographs).

Media contacts: Nicole Trigwell (Minister for Primary Industry) 481 2044 Peter Harris (Minister for the Environment) 321 2222