Council to Undertake Weed Eradication Works

Published on 03 September 2021

Council is excited to announce that it has been successful in receiving grant funding from the Tasmanian Government through its Weed Action Fund (WAF) to undertake weed eradication works that impact valuable agricultural land and our natural environment.

Burnie City Council Mayor Steve Kons said “Burnie City Council, the Department of State Growth, Forico, TasRail, Waratah-Wynyard Council and adjacent agricultural landowners will work together towards eradicating Gorse and English broom from the road and rail corridors and properties along the Ridgley Highway between Ridgley and Waratah.”

This area has diverse agricultural assets including cropping, high quality beef cattle and sheep bred for the local and interstate markets, as well as production forests. Production forest land nearby also includes conservation areas to protect the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC)-listed Highland Poa Grasslands. The proposed works will strengthen protection of these agricultural assets, reduce future chemical inputs and enable a more sustainable production capacity into the future.

The project will benefit the wider region; road and rail corridors are the major transport route from west to north-west Tasmania and have the potential to carry weed seed into some of Tasmanian’s most valuable and iconic natural areas and tourist routes including the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area and the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park.

This project has been raised as a priority for Weed Action Fund (WAF) funding within the Cradle Coast Weed Advisory Group and is strongly supported by all stakeholders involved. This project will solidify the long-term commitment to weed control within this project area by fostering collaboration and strategic weed control activities across tenure and form relationships and networks beyond the life of the project funding.

Mayor Steve Kons said “Council worked closely with the Cradle Coast Natural Resource Management (NRM) team to gain the funding for this project which stretches over 3 years for a value of $87,760.  The total buy in for all stakeholders for the project is $260,000. Council is no longer a member of the Cradle Coast Authority, however I would like to highlight that the Cradle Coast NRM is a separate State Government funded organisation, and Council will continue to work with Cradle Coast NRM to manage and improve our natural resources to ensure a healthy future for our municipality.”

The Tasmanian Weeds Action Fund is a $5 million Tasmanian Government initiative, funded for five years from 2018-19. The funds provided by the state government will be invested with farmers and community organisations to tackle weeds impacting valuable agricultural and environmental assets.