In 2021, the Coal River Products Association was awarded a grant to support a landscape-scale project tackling invasive weeds across the valley over three years.
This grant is part of the Tasmanian Government’s Weeds Action Fund Targeted Large Grants, which provide a total of $1.5 million to large-scale projects over three years, with landholders also contributing to projects.
The Coal River Products Association will tackle several target weeds over 67 private and public sites across the valley. This will treat over 2,090 hectares within a 15,000-hectare area.
Priority weed species are:
- serrated tussock
- Chilean needlegrass
- gorse.
While these are the main targets, we will also target other weeds of significance for our area, including African boxthorn.
Project Manager Oliver Strutt said the project area spans from Craigbourne Dam to Cambridge and the Southern Midlands and Clarence municipalities.
“Weed populations know no boundaries, so it’s necessary to engage all stakeholders in the planning process, from private landholders and producers, to councils, Crown Land Services, and other land managers such as Tas Networks,” said Mr Strutt.
Project objectives
- Outline the current situation with regard to weed populations and their distributions in the district
- Develop strategic weed management priorities to protect valuable agricultural resources from weeds
- Outline broad scale and property-specific management practices that can be employed to reduce weed populations and their impact on land assets
- Educate land owners on the current distribution of weeds on their properties, their neighbours’ properties and the district as a whole
- Maintain follow up control for up to 10 years.
Progress
The first stage of the project saw the development of the Coal River Valley Weed Management Plan.
A field day focussing on Chilean needle grass was held in November 2021, with a strong turnout from Coal Valley property owners and other stakeholders.
A Weeds Action Fund Subcommittee was established to guide the project. Subcommittee members are:
- Andrew Beven
- Tom Brown
- Neville Mendham
- Ollie Strutt
- Hana Jones
- Ronald Gunn
Work is now underway to contact priority properties and develop individual weed action plans for each property. Priority properties are those which:
- have one (or more) of the specific weeds targeted by this project, and
- are located in strategically important areas – for example, near the edge of the weed’s current distribution.
While we are aiming to cover all properties in the project area, we need to work in order of priority to make the best use of the funds and get the best outcome.