Australian Cynodon germplasm has not been comprehensively exploited for bermudagrass improvement. In this paper we will describe ‘EcoTurf’ a four year (2007-2011) project to develop water and nutrient use efficient bermudagrasses from Australian biodiversity. We describe the sampling strategies of Australian biodiversity, the physiological and molecular tools used to characterise the collected germplasm of over 1000 ecotypes and detail some of the important outcomes