Fireweed explodes at Tilba; new Landcare group being formed

You may have seen Mr Dunn picking fireweed on the roadside from Bermagui all the way up to the new Princes Highway bypass at Victoria Creek, while he has also been known to approach other landowners too go picking on their properties. He even has a special permit to take his fireweed pickings to the council landfill.

Now he is forming a new Landcare group for the Tilba and southern Narooma area that he hopes will take on some of the fireweed picking duties.

While present in the area for the past 15 years, the weed in only the last year or two has literally exploded in the Tilba area blanketing paddocks with yellow and now it appears to be on the march to areas around Narooma and Moruya.

A Tilba fireweed commitee was formed back in 1999 but was abandonded five years ago when it was deemed that nothing but a biological control could stop the scourge, local landowner and committee member Harry Bate said.

“I remember the day that I was standing talking with another local and he jumped up this high when he realised he had seen a fireweed plant in the area for the first time and that was back in 1999 or 2000,” Mr Bate said.

Small victories for the committee and other fireweed battlers include having fireweed a Weed of National Significance (WONS) while roadside signs warning of the menace were installed at Tilba Tilba and other locations. 

Now following on from the successful Department of Primary Industry fireweed field day held at the Haxstead property on October 31, Mr Dunn’s new focus is forming a local Landcare group for the Tilba and south Narooma area.

Attendees were addressed by the well-known Cooma-based New South Wales agronomist Luke Pope; John O'Connor from DPI; local small holding farmer Greg Chinnook from Cobargo; Eurobodalla council's senior weed control manager Paul Martin and Mr Dunn himself with regard to the Landcare issue.

The topics covered included spraying and handpicking the weed; the use of sheep and other animals in the control process and good pasture management, organisation and techniques. There was scope to get Federal government funding through the Green Army volunteers or the work for the dole scheme.

The aim is to get the Landcare group up and running by next year when the fireweed season is at its worst-usually in winter and late autumn, although this year it became out of control and lasted well into spring.

“Most people do not realise that fireweed is a highly poisonous and toxic weed and if consumed by stock under drought conditions or fed hay and silage that contains the weed-threatens to contaminate the food chain and in the right conditions can become  a serious health hazard,” Mr Dunn said. 

“Poisoning of the weed has serious limitations and picking and pasture management very much plays an important part in its control.”

On the national level, work on a biological control looking at natural predators of the plant in Madagascar is being done jointly by the University of New England and scientists in South Africa, he said. 

The first Tilba Landcare meeting is in the Small Hall at 7.30pm Monday, Nov. 16. Contact Mr Dunn on 4473 7853.