With the help of Conservation Volunteers Australia and bush regeneration contractors, our Project Officer, Richard Scarborough has guided successful activities which have seen weeds removed from the site, and the slow replacement of native ground covers to the understorey of the forest.
Works commenced back in 2012 removing large stands of lantana, moth vine, wild tobacco, and other invasive weeds. Today, we are no longer looking into a wall of weeds, and can see all the way down to the creek that runs through the property.
Volunteers and contractors have not only removed weeds from the site, but they have strategically transplanted a diversity of ground covers which, once established, create a carpet over the ground and outcompete any weed seedlings coming in the cleared areas.
The project has not been without its challenges though, with the first round of weed
removal seeing a carpet of Moth vine seedlings establish in place of the Lantana. But once the ground covers took off and with regular follow up, they have been occurring less and less.
When it comes to the edges of the vegetation, we have had some wins too. We are so delighted to see what was once a Moth vine, Crofton weed infested paddock edge (backing onto Subtropical Rainforest), now thriving with beautiful native ground covers too.
Some of them are in flower right now, and we were able to capture them on our most recent monitoring trip.
As we increase canopy cover with our tree plantings (which are also going great by
the way), and encourage a carpet of nice native ground covers, the site needs less and less maintenance and the bush starts to look after itself again.
