The Cobargo Seed Savers started as an offshoot of the Bega Valley Seedavers on the Far South Coast NSW in 2014. A group of Cobargo locals (some already volunteers in the Bega group) wanted to save seeds from their own home grown vegies to help develop local food resilience, and to help preserve the wide diversity of vegetable varieties that thrive in our local climate and conditions. Luckily we had the Bega group nearby to help us get established and to share their knowledge, skills and excellent resources. We continue to work together on the lands of the Djiringanj people of the Yuin Nation on various projects and joint activities, and share a seedbank.

We are a volunteer run group with members coming from a wide area in and around Cobargo and the surrounding region. We get together on the last Wednesday of every month from 10am to 12pm in one of our volunteer’s shed to process and clean locally grown seeds for the seedbank, package them up to sell to the local community, and share with each other our home grown seeds, seedlings and abundance of fruit/veg. We also have seasonal workshops run by our volunteers on how to save seeds using different techniques. We share local gardening tips and stories and generally have a good time while doing good stuff! If you’re interested in coming along – you’d be VERY welcome and you don’t need any experience – please email Ruta at rutakanepe@hotmail.com for the next gathering details. (During COVID restrictions, we have not been having regular gatherings.)

In the wake of the bushfires which devastated our area in 2019/20, the Cobargo Seed Savers coordinated an initiative to grow and distribute free vegetable seedlings to enable fire affected households throughout the Bega Valley to get back into (or start) growing their own vegies. We collaborated with the Bega group on this project, with support from our local communities, bushfire recovery centres, Anglicare, who provided grant funding for a second round of growing, local businesses and other volunteer groups. The Seedlings for Fire Recovery initiative ran over two growing seasons and delivered over 10,000 vegetable seedlings.