Linda and Roger's Bunhybee Grasslands
Weed Control Implementation

This is a page within Roger and Linda's Bunhybee Grasslands Web-Site.

Bunhybee Grasslands is a 49 hectare / 120 acre conservation property 35km south of Braidwood, in southern N.S.W.

You can follow through the internal links, or you may find it easier to use the Site-Map.

This page contains information about the activities we've undertaken on the property since our purchase of it was finalised on 22 December 2008.

Here's what we've done most recently, and here's what we plan to do next.

The Baseline

Based on our inspections of the property and information provided by NCT, we compiled this map of the weed infestations and related data.

Pre-NCT (to early 2007?). We don't know the sequence of prior owners and sale dates. And we don't know what weed attack work had been undertaken prior to NCT's purchase of the property. On the one hand, it appears to have never been intensively grazed and never to have been fertilised, presumably because of the limited water and hence limited stock-holding capacity. On the other hand, it's in great shape, which means either that the native species are extraordinarily healthy and resistant to invasion by foreign species, or that successful weed attack work has been previously conducted.

NCT (early 2007 to early 2008?). We don't know the date NCT acquired it. They conducted a small amount of work on serrated tussock, in [in late 2007 or early 2008?]. They reported what they referred to as "some isolated infestations" (about 5 locations on the upper slopes of the northern block, mostly about 50m from the forest boundary), all of which were small tussocks. They hand-pulled (because the work was conducted during a non-seeding phase of the year), avoiding soil-disturbance and leaving the tussocks on site.

They consider that larger plants are best done with chemical spraying but saw none on Bunhybee although there were some on the Parlour Grasslands, immediately to the south.

No other weed attack work was undertaken by NCT between their purchase of the property and our purchase of it from them on 22 Dec 2008.

Activities To Date

We have conducted the following activities:

6 Oct 2008

Central and Northern blocks – toured, searching for and documenting weeds

15 Nov 2008

Central and Southern blocks – toured, searching for and documenting weeds

20 Dec 2008

Main northern waterline – worked down the waterline, trimmed then cut-and-painted blackberries as far down as the dam, leaving the cuttings lying on rocky ground

Northern and Central blocks – checked tussocks, searching for serrated tussocks (none found)

10 Jan 2009

In Northern block, central-east:

• Serrated Tussock. Sprayed one serrated tussock

In Peppermint corner, adjacent to the peppermint gum:

• Thistles. Attacked several score thistles (Roger headed and bagged, chopped low and cut the stumps; Linda mattocked out the roots, minimising the ground disturbance)
• Briar Rose. Cut-and-painted one large briar rose
• Blackberries. Trimmed and then cut-and-painted two blackberries

In Peppermint corner, under the trees, in the extreme NE corner:

• Bracken Fern. Removed most of the northern and western bracken fern (headed and bagged, pulled and left the roots exposed). Left the southern 1/3rd to one-half, and the large patch 50m south. (It's actually a native, and a pioneer species, but it does rather take over areas)

In Northern block, centre:

• Fleabane and Sorrel. Attacked occasional fleabane and large sorrell (pulled and left the roots exposed; in the case of a few sorrell whose seed appeared viable, headed and bagged)

In the main dam wall:

• Blackberry. Cut-and-painted all outliers of the southernmost and most extensive of the two large blackberry infestations, enabling access to the main bush next time we come
• Thistles. Attacked a score of thistles (headed and bagged, chopped low and cut the stumps)
• Fleabane. Attacked several score fleabane

22 Feb 2009

In Northern block, in the main dam wall:

• Blackberry
  • Attacked the main body of the southernmost of the two blackberry infestations, placing cuttings on rock platforms, then applying cut-and-paint to the six main plants that had been exposed
  • Did a preliminary attack on the northernmost infestation. (There are only a few outliers, and they can be cut-and-painted on the same day as the main body)
  • Found and cut-and-painted a small plant with four footings deeply embedded in the grass in relatively wet ground 10m east of Photo Point 1
  • A detailed description was entered into the blackberry part of the Weed Control Plan

Northern bush half-cut, southern bush cut-and-painted	Southern bush after cut-and-paint	Large northern bush half-removed

12 March 2009

In the Middle block:

• Cleared foreign grasses around the gateway area

25 April 2009

In the Middle block:

• Cleared the worst of the weeds and foreign grasses at the gateway and in the first 50m of the drive
• Cleared the thistles and fleabane on the wall of the small dam, and in adjacent areas
• In all relevant cases, cut the seed-heads off into a bag first, then (mostly) pulled the remainder of the plant from the soft dirt and replaced the divot if necessary, and left the roots exposed

10 May 2009

We finally made a start on the Southern block:

• Attacked the one very large clump of blackberry in the waterline near to the east, close to the strip of snow-gums and occasional rubida. Cleared much of the bulk, exposing the (many) plants ready for cut-and-paint in spring. Placed the cuttings on nearby rocks. The rocks are in the water-line, but substantial flows seem unlikely, and the plant appeared to be dormant, so the cuttings seem unlikely to do any damage there

The bush before the attack	The bush after the attack. (We ran out of time to finish the cut-back)

1 August 2009

No weeding done, but:

• the blackberries in northern block were looking suitably dead
• there were rather more suspect serrated tussock in the northern block than we'd hoped. The suspect patches were near the northernmost and primary waterways, both about mid-block on the E-W axis, and east of the copse on Echidna Ridge
• pig-damage has worsened in the 2-1/2 months we were away, but none of the patches, young or old, look too bad, i.e. a mix of native and introduced pioneers such as flatweed but nothing too obviously nasty
• the main dam was definitely lower. Combined with the general brown-ness and absence of growth, it appears that Canberra's modest but useful winter rain probably came from the SW; and that Bunhybee got very little from that, and very little from the (probably prevailing in winter?) S and SE. Bega is supposed to be in (relatively) dire straits
• the small dam was distinctly higher, and was cleaner than in May. The obvious inference is that it's spring-fed, and the spring is on a different cycle to the rain-water

6 September 2009

Two activities in preparation for cutting-and-painting the remaining blackberries in spring / early summer (each about 2 hours):

• finished the attack on the large blackberry bush in the waterline near the southern boundary
• three-quarters-finished the attack on the remaining large blackberry infestation on the main dam wall

The main Southern infestation, after prep	The main dam, northern bush, during the work	Late on in the work

The pig-damage is continuing. The rain has been very limited, and the main dam is very low, although there was some moisture in the southern water-line. The small dam was again looking to be being spring-fed.

20 September 2009

In the Northern block:

• we finished pruning back the remaining large blackberry infestation on the wall of the main dam
• we cut-and-painted the two-thirds of the dam wall that we hadn't done in autumn. (Roger hacked and carried, and Linda cut with one hand and painted with the other. This seems to work even better than the tag-team approach we're used previously. The painting was done to both the newly-cut stem and any young leaves that presented themselves on the stalk). See the blackberry part of the Weed Control Plan
• we inspected the nearby blackberries. Everything on the dam wall looked very dead. The two large bushes on the SE corner of the dam were almost entirely very dead, and the couple of signs of life were cut-and-painted
• we dug out the dozen or so new thistle-bases that had appeared on the dam wall, using a small hand-pick that Linda had acquired. It's quite effective, enabling you to limit the ground breakage and get reasonably well down the root. The plants were left upturned with the roots shaken clean of dirt and exposed to the sun

The end of the bush	The act of cut-and-paint	The result	The work-party
Pig-damage	From southern end ...	... of the dam wall

In the gateway area:

• Linda painted the flatweeds with neat glyphosate

We established dam-height measurement-points and took initial height-measures:

• in the main dam, the location is the bottom of a rock in the SW corner, and the line is along the dam-wall (3 metres to the left) and pretty close to due N. The distance from the bottom of the rock down to the waterline was 2.3 metres. It was about as low as we've seen it, after a prolonged period of little rain from the SE, and limited rain from the SW making it across the Tallaganda Range
• in the small dam, the location is the base of the young willow-tree on the northern edge. (Linda still can't bring herself to chop it down, especially when it's all green and hopeful). The line is towards the gateway, close to due S. The distance down to the waterline was 3.4 metres. It was fairly full – we presume because it's spring-fed (in spring, as in winter ...)

7 October 2009

Visited with friends, with no intention of doing any work. Which was lucky, because it was cold, very windy, and with some rain. Quick observations at the main dam were:

• the blackberry we'd cut-and-painted in late summer still looked very dead
• the blackberry we'd cut-and-painted only 2-1/2 weeks earlier was shooting
• there had been good rainfall in the meantime, with the main dam rising to 1.1m below the measurement-point, a rise of 1.2m at an angle of 1 in 2, or a depth of 60cm
• the main watercourse was actually running (a little) – the first time we'd seen that
• the frogs in the main waterline were noisy, again with one high-pitched and one lower-pitched voice apparent

14 November 2009

The late-summer attacks on blackberries still appear to have been highly successful. The early-summer attacks appear to have been very effective, but with some re-growth necessitating re-visit in February-March.

Finally, the day had come for the assault on the serrated tussock! We felt we'd done enough trials, and learnt enough about recognising it and reliably distinguishing it from other grasses, especially a rather similar stipa. And it would have been dangerous to defer it any longer.

We considered using weedicide, but were concerned about the residue problem and the sheer nastiness of the chemicals needed to kill it. Here's the approach we selected (and documented in the serrated tussock part of the Weed Control Plan):

• use a mattock to get under the clump from the outside
  (Linda used the large mattock, and Roger used a small one-hander.
  Both work. The large one is more efficient, but maybe has more side-effects)
• lever and draw out the multiple intertwined plants
  (We tried to minimise the shaking, in case any of the seeds were already viable)
• knock off the larger lumps of dirt
• bag the grass
• pat down the dirt

The downside of this approach is the broken ground; but the property has shown itself capable of recovering from pig-damage, and there were plenty of other species around to fill up the spaces.

We attacked two areas:

• immediately to the east of the copse. Some 60 clumps were chopped out of an area c. 20m square
• in the centre and centre-east of the northern block, along the low ridge-line between the two waterlines. NCT treated some dozen or so clumps in the eastern part of this area in 2007-08. Some 40 scattered clumps were removed from across an area c. 150 east-west x 100m north-south

We took four large rubbish-bags of grass to the Mugga Lane tip. The contractors, Corkhills, assured us that the regular 18 months of composting was enough to kill all seeds.

28 November 2009

A tour of the southern block was undertaken, starting in the NE corner, along the eastern side, then zig-zagging in castle ramparts formation back to the western side.

Admittedly it was blowing a gale, but not one serrated tussock was seen. Half-a-dozen thistles were pulled out from the top of the waterline. There are several blackberries at various points down the waterline, and more briar rose than elsewhere on the property, including a cluster of 20-30 half-way down.

We also took out 20 enthusiastically re-growing thistles on the wall of the small dam.

30 December 2009

On the northern block, halfway between the copse and the house-site:

• a couple of serrated tussocks that Linda had seen on 11 November. Unfortunately they'd already seeded and the heads had blown away. The results of the previous work done closer to the copse looked positive, in that the tussocks we'd intentionally left did indeed all look very much like stipas (which either seed later than serrated tussock or release it later)

Most of the time was spent in the waterlines in the southern block:

• a large number of briar roses, maybe 30, many of them mature and many-stemmed. We cut-and-painted, as for blackberry, except that none of the hips appeared to be ripe, so we just left them on the adjacent rocks. We started at a rock outcrop on the northern side of the creekline, worked west 40m, then east up the two adjacent waterlines. There may be a few more left in the last 30m at the top (east) and in the last 100m at the bottom (west and south)
• a small number of young blackberries, including a couple of very vigorous ones close to the eastern boundary. There are a few more small ones in the last 100m at the top (east). There are a few larger ones in the last 100m at the bottom (west and south), including the largest of the lot, which we started on last summer
• about 30 thistles, clustered together about 50m west of the eastern boundary. They had headed, and some had flowered, but it seems unlikely that any had seeded yet. Just in case, we bagged the tops, and then split the remaining stems open

In the moist area between the gate and the small dam, about 10 thistles, which we dug out of the soft ground

In the above areas generally, occasional healthy-looking fleabane offered themselves as victims

20 February 2010

Near the SW corner, continued the attack on Bunhybee's largest blackberry bush on the lowest-lying land close to the SW corner. What we'd cut back on 10 May 2009 had mostly re-grown; but the clearance we did then of old canes made it much easier going this time. It was about 40 sq.m. (8m x 5m).

We did two-person hack-back and cut-and-paste on 3/4 of it. We'd previously deposited cuttings on the rock-shelves in the creek-line, but these were now covered with water (with zero re-growth from the old cuttings). So we picked a clear area of healthy grass 15m West of the bush, and piled and pressed the cuttings there.

There are two more bushes to be done, close by in that waterline. They have been encouraged by the recent rain, which left evidence of water-flow and multiple pools down the southern waterway.

Blackberry Condition	The Big Bush – Before ...	... Near the End (only the clump on the right remains)	What's Left to do of the SW Cluster

The blackberries were nearing ripeness, the rose-hips were partly ripe, and the thistles were a mix of already blown off, ready to release, and still flowering (in many cases, on the same plant). So (what with a hot summer and a busy holiday period) we've already missed the opportunity to eliminate them before this year's seed is spread.

Briar Rose and Thistle in the SW corner	Condition of Cirsium vulgare Black (or Spear) Thistle

28 Feb – 1 Mar 2010

After commitments in Canberra on Sunday morning, we did 4 hours late afternoon, and 3-1/2 hours Monday morning, staying in Braidwood overnight. On Sunday we finished the big bush, and the nearby second-biggest bush, again with Roger doing the hack-back and Linda the cut-and-paint. We also did the thistles at the very bottom of the water-line, close to the southern boundary, heading and bagging, and pulling the stalks from the soft soil.

On Monday, Roger did the remaining bushes at the end of the southern waterline, and we did the thistles in the half-acre or so in the waterline just upstream, i.e. in the section below where it turns from running west to running south. We also did several briar roses and fleabane, as the opportunity presented itself.

On Monday, Linda used the back-pack (for the first time), to spray the driveway, from about 40m in, back to the gate and in the parking area outside. (Linda found some suspect African love-grass, to be checked)

A very successful work-session, which brings us close to completing the first round of weed-attack work on the property.

Future Activities

In roughly descending priority order:

• Blackberries:
  • For details, see the blackberry part of the Weed Control Plan
  • prioritise late-summer work rather than early spring, spring or even early summer
  • in the Southern block :
    • continue the attack on the few remaining bushes on the lowest-lying land close to the SW corner (a couple just south of the bend)
    • finish working along the rest of the waterline, eliminating smaller clusters
  • in the Northern block:
    • finish the first pass, by continuing down the main waterline in the northern block, possibly down onto Di Izzard's incursion block
    • re-visit the upper reaches of the main waterline to check the effectiveness of the first round of cut-and-paint and re-do as necessary
    • check the dam-wall work from time to time, and knock off the re-sproutings
  • in the Central block:
  • attack the two in the vicinity of the small dam
• Serrated Tussock:
  • inspect 2-3 times p.a., to identify and preferably mark suspect clumps, then check them in early summer for dark seeds, or in mid-summer for purple flumes. For details, see the serrated tussock part of the Weed Control Plan
  • the suspect areas are, working from the north to the south:
    • in the centre and centre-east of the northern block (a dozen removed by NCT 2008-09, and 60 removed by us Nov 2009)
    • just east of the copse (40 removed Nov 2009)
    • a couple on the track up towards the copse (6 removed Dec 2009)
    • a couple in the waterline near the gate (not attacked yet)
    • the high ground on the eastern edge of the middle Lot, adjacent to the commercial property above Bunhybee (but we're not yet convinced there are any actually there)
    • none found in the southern block yet
• Briar Rose:
• in the Northern block, attack two low-down in the waterline and another above the dam
• in the Southern block, finish working the main waterline – middle done, upper and bottom to do. There remain about 20 in the bottom section
• Thistles
  • the first-round attacks on the main areas were quite successful, but there are outliers and there always will be, and reinfestation of the main areas will occur
  • the new outbreak in the secondary waterline, just above the SW corner, appears to have been contained for now, but needs annual re-visits in early/mid-summer
  • it's mostly Cirsium vulgare (Black or Spear Thistle), with occasional Carduus nutans (Nodding Thistle) and some Sonchus oleraceus (Common Sow-Thistle)
  • the worst infestations were:
    • in Peppermint corner
    • on the main dam wall
    • around the small dam on the Middle Block
    • in the western side of the Southern Block, at the top of the waterline
    • in early 2010, in the secondary waterline just above the SW corner
• Driveway
  • paint and/or spray (and/or carefully dig out) plantago, introduced grasses, flatweed
  • we still haven't seen a sensible solution to the need for parking-space near the gate. A wider entry outside the gate could have been (and could still be) the most appropriate solution
• Roadside Hawthorns and Briar Roses
  • on the roadside outside the southern block (300m south of the gate)
  • across the road from the gate
• Introduced Plantago/Plaintain
  • particularly in the relatively moist area between the gate and the small dam
• Introduced Grasses
• work out how to deal with:
  • phalaris, mainly in the gateway area. This can mostly be chopped out
  • paspalum that's inter-twined with poas and stipas, e.g. below the track just above the small dam, and at the bottom of the southern watercourse (SW corner)
  • sweet vernal grass, primarily in the relatively moist areas
  • Yorkshire fog, primarily in the relatively moist areas
• Fleabane
  • keep dealing with miscellanous plants opportunistically, whenever seen
• Tolpis umbellata (?aka T. barbata – Yellow Hawkweed)
  • monitor, in case it turns out to be nasty

This is a page within the Bunhybee Grasslands Web-Site, home-page here, and site-map here

Contact: Linda or Roger

Created: 11 January 2009; Last Amended: 1 March 2010