About Flora Victoria

Flora Victoria was conceived while Chris Findlay was working as a member of the ground staff at Burnley Horticultural College. His main role was to develop the indigenous garden which had been designed and constructed by Robert Boyle, and planted by staff and students in 1990.

During the four years Chris worked in this garden, he introduced over one hundred species of ground flora including grasses, forbs, ground covers, twiners, terrestrial orchids and carnivorous plants. Many of these plants were propagated from seed he had collected over the previous years and plants that had been grown for projects and research by students.

This garden was a valuable educational tool and was also used for plant identification courses by organisations outside the college. It also helped inspire some students to focus their interest on the conservation of the plant communities these species belong to.

The opportunity of propagating and establishing so many indigenous species on such a small site inspired Chris to move on from Burnley and use these skills to to create larger high diversity landscapes and inspire more people to use indigenous plants.

In 1998 Chris Findlay and Sabine Koolen established Flora Victoria to design and develop high diversity indigenous interpretation landscapes for Brimbank City Council. The complexity of these landscapes put Flora Victoria at the cutting edge of high diversity revegetation and maintenance techniques. Direct seeding of native grasses was considered a risky endeavor at the time, and all planting was done using either tube or cell stock. Two of these landscapes still exist and are maintained with the help of volunteers. These landscapes showcase many of the local plant species in a way that helps inspire visitors to learn more about the plants, Grasslands and the history of the Basalt Plains to the west of Melbourne.

Over the next few years the company branched out to undertake more conventional environmental works for other Councils and organisations, earning a reputation for high quality work and reliability. Flora Victoria ceased operations for a period of four years while the proprietors gained experience in related fields including the harvesting and direct seeding of native grasses.