Margaret Sedgley from the University of Adelaide has collected DNA samples from 404 wild olive trees to develop Australian cultivars. She said it was essential that the wild material growing in Australia be identified and propagated before being destroyed. Wild olives are considered an invasive weed in southern Australia and are targeted by eradication programs. Professor Sedgley said between 50 and 100 different olive cultivars were brought to Australia by the first Europeans and many had grown wild, providing an impressive gene pool that had developed unique hybrids. She said the cool, wet winters and dry summers in southern Australia were similar to the Mediterranean climate where olives had grown since before biblical times.
Olives do really well in Australia.
She said the development of an olive breeding program was essential for Australia to maintain a competitive advantage as the industry grows. Professor Sedgley said that the confusion of genus types and nomenclature was also a problem for Australia's wine industry. Between 1997 and 1999, data had been collected from 404 wild trees and 50 trees were found to have superior oil yield. These have been propagated. DNA analysis is now widely used for plant genetic studies.