Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation Herbarium

The Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation (CMLR) conducts multi-disciplinary research to inform a wide range of mine rehabilitation and environmental management decisions. Plant identifications by CMLR staff and students are a fundamental step in assessing the effects of mining and success in rehabilitation of disturbed land. Environmental monitoring often involves extensive plant identifications, especially in the initial years at new sites. Additionally, a number of locations where we work have limited plant identification resources available. This particularly applies to central Queensland for which there is no comprehensive flora—in contrast to south-east Queensland and NSW.

The aim of the CMLR Herbarium is to assist with plant identifications by providing query-based filtering of specimens and dynamic high-resolution images to complement traditional forms of identification such as flora books and keys. The collections cover flora found at mine site locations primarily in Queensland but with some collections covering NSW and Northern Territory. Whilst the collection will remain small, it does provide advanced features and capabilities compatible with Australian and global herbarium online initiatives. It is also publicly available for others working on mine sites or others interested in plant identifications.
The CMLR Herbarium houses comprehensive site collections for long-term projects, representative collections for some mine sites in NSW and QLD and research-appropriate collection of plant specimens with a focus on mine land rehabilitation and mine-related landscapes.