In the News

Groundsel Bush (Baccharis halimifolia)

Quest Newspapers South-West News / Springfield News Wednesday April 4th 2012 reports on results from their Quest Council survey.  I participated in the Survey and journalist Alana Scott phoned  me for further information which was included in the published report.  We are most interested in Bushcare and Habitat protection in the Inala area and the 3 mentioned issues included in the newspaper article were preservation of native habitat; illegal dumping and failure to control Groundsel bush on council property which is a  class 2 declared weed in Queensland.  We have reported Groundsel infestations in local parklands on a number of occasions and have been dissappointed at the failure to eradicate this weed from our local parks.  Of all the plants reported only a single one, in a highly visible public area has been killed, all others remain healthy and will continue to spread through the area even though by law a class 2 weed must be controlled by the landholder.  We have seen a couple of bushes spread now into private property as well.

These were tall straight native trees

There is a lot of dumping of all sorts of household waste but in particular garden waste in the local area.  We have reported many instances to our local member and in every case the rubbish has been fairly promptly removed.  It is a shame that more cannot be done to control this dumping at the source but it is not council practice to do letter drops warning of fines associated with illegal dumping in areas with high dumping rates.

Another tall straight native gone

Discarded branches left behind

The most upsetting recent issue has been habitat 
destruction in a small area of remnant native bushland.  We have worked diligently in this remnant to reduce the weed load and encourage native habitat growth and we have been rewarding by noting many native bird species using this small patch.  However recently many natives trees have been cut off at ground level with branches hacked off others thus severely reducing the native canopy. 


Whatever organisation is responsible for this destruction has also just left all the removed material dumped thus reducing any chance of us continuing to control the weed growth in this area. There are power lines nearby and we suspect an over zealous contractor has cleared these trees which were tall and straight and not impacting on the power lines. We are certain that these trees were not a threat to these power lines and simply removing a few branches would have given sufficient clear space.  Instead many native trees have been totally destroyed leaving the weed species in tact to fill the space.  The lantana, broad leaf pepper, chinese elm and easter casia have been left untouched.