About Us

Victorian Indigenous Nurseries Co-operative (VINC) propagates and supplies local native (indigenous) plants to local government and government agencies for bushland re-vegetation.  We also supply schools, community groups, landscape gardeners and members of the public through our retail section.

VINC is a not-for-profit co-operative run by a Board of Management, and has both paid staff and volunteers.

Additionally, it encourages membership to support the co-operative in exchange for offering discounts and special benefits. 
Currently over 600 individuals, organisations and businesses are registered as members of VINC.

Our primary objectives are to supply the local community with quality, sustainably grown plants, to promote biodiversity and to demonstrate the benefits of using indigenous plants through workshops, outreach and education.

Annually VINC produces over 400,000 plants, the majority of these as forestry tubes.  Grasses, rush & reed species are increasingly being produced in smaller format hiko trays. These formats have a proven success rate.  With good weed control and minimal watering the plants survive along creeks and in other tough conditions.

Despite the majority of our sales being wholesale customers, we also have a cosy retail section with a great range for the home gardener. We produce over 250 species yearly, including groundcovers, herbs, trees, shrubs and grasses.

VINC sources seed and cuttings from local areas to ensure that our plants are genetically suited to the areas we supply.  Local council areas we cover are Banyule, Boroondara, Darebin, Hume, Moonee Valley, Moreland, Nillumbik, Stonnington, Whittlesea and Yarra.

Due to encroaching development, weed incursion and altered hydrology, many collection areas are becoming degraded or lost altogether.  Low rainfall and high temperatures also affects the supply of seed and cuttings, and for this reason VINC is working on a number of fronts to set up seed and cutting orchards.