Effective identification of species is critical for biodiversity conservation in the context of changing land use and resource development. Whole plastid genome sequences provide great promise for DNA-based plant identification because they avoid many of the limitations of classical single-gene barcoding. We applied short read high-throughput sequencing of DNA samples obtained from herbarium material to develop a sequence resource for the Pilbara, Western Australia, an area with a rich and diverse arid zone flora, but also an important global source of iron ore and lithium.