The project built considerable momentum for the delivery of on-ground weed outcomes by creating awareness about the threat of weeds, developing a number of specific educational and project-based materials and working with groups to develop skills and initiate work programs. This included a number of the Kimberley Indigenous Ranger Groups as well as Shires, Main Roads, Department of Agriculture and Department of Environment and Conservation by contributing to the development of policy, weed management planning and processes.

Rubber Bush

The 2008/09 Community WEED Project is an extension of the previous year’s project and aims to expand the delivery of resources and capacity building activities to a greater geographic area of the Kimberley. The Community Weed project also continued it’s partnership with the Department of Environment and Conservation in delivering the project ‘Conserving Dampier Peninsula’s Vine Thickets.” Both of these projects were contracted through Rangelands WA using Natural Heritage Trust Funding.

The Community WEED aims to:

• Develop and implement community-level education and on-ground sustainable weed control initiatives within the Northern Rangelands of WA.
• Work towards and drive a holistic community, industry and governmental response to the threat weeds impose on environmental and cultural values within the Kimberley and Pilbara regions.

What do weeds do?

Two thirds of Australia’s weeds started off as friendly-looking garden plants that changed the environment by taking over habitat and displacing native plants. Some weeds were introduced as pasture species and have since spread to create problems in other areas.  Weeds are plants that come from other countries or from other parts of Australia. They don’t usually have any natural predators and can quickly dominate an area. Changes to the vegetation structure can harm both animals and people as habitat is destroyed, areas become increasingly difficult to access and bush tucker much harder to find. Also, natural process such as fire and water flow can be severely altered by the presence of weeds, causing erosion, bushfires and species loss.

In the Kimberley, the vulnerable Purple Crowned Fairy Wren is threatened by weeds, the fragile and threatened Monsoonal Vine Thicket is being smothered to death along the coastline, and mighty rivers like the Fitzroy are being choked by weeds.

Passion Vine

Picture: Passion Vine smothering degraded Monsoon vine thicket on the Dampier Peninsula Coast. Native plants struggle to germinate and survive and the habitat value for animals and birds is much reduced. In late dry season the weeds make this area much more flammable. A hot fire can destroy many native plants and seeds and help weeds spread into more areas.

Merremia

Picture: Merremia smothers native vegetation in coastal woodlands along Roebuck Bay. This plant promotes, and is promoted by fire.

Coffee Bush

Picture: Coffee Bush dominates an area in Kununurra. These plants form thickets and shade out native vegetation. They compete strongly with other plants and prevent germination of native shrubs, trees and understorey plants. The thickets reduce the habitat value of areas and also provide fuel for hot fires. The seeds are hard and germinate readily after a hot fire.

Weeds can cause hotter and more frequent fires and threaten vulnerable species with local extinction. Some weeds have defenses against being eaten. The produce spiny branches or fruit that is poisonous to grazing animals and heavy grazing can therefore promote their spread. Feral cattle, donkeys and camels, as well as off-road driving, all contribute to the degradation of native vegetation and promote the spread of weeds. It is important to avoid excess disturbance of native vegetation and the spread of weed seeds in cars, clothing and camping gear.

Healthy native ecosystems managed under natural fire regimes are the best defense against weeds. Where weeds are already a big problem, it helps to have a long-term plan, good training and methodology, and smart ideas to help restore the natural balance.

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What are Kimberley Weeds?

The Environs Kimberley Community WEED Project has compiled an (ever-growing) list of Kimberley weeds. These have been developed into downloadable weed cards so anyone in the Kimberley can learn to identify weeds and then start doing something about them.

Click the following to access the individual Kimberley Weed Cards:

If you would like to receive a hard copy of these weed cards, please email the Community WEED Project Officer at ekweeds@environskimberley.org.au

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What else is the Community WEED Project up to?

The project is about creating partnerships with community and working groups, TAFE, industry, and local and state government. It is about building awareness and capacity for people to tackle weed threats.

Kimberley Weed Program Manual

Community WEED has developed an adaptable Kimberley Weed Program Manual. It has two parts:

	“Keeping People and Country Safe When Doing Weed Work” which gives people lots of ideas on how to work smart, minimise use of herbicides and deal with weeds effectively, without compromising human and environmental safety.
	“Site Manual” which contains all the Monitoring and Recording sheets you need as well as tips for creating a site plan. If you need any advice or assistance in creating a site plan, be sure to contact the Community WEED Project. ekweeds@environskimberley.org.au

Minyirr Park

The Community WEED Project is working with Minyirr Park to develop their weed management works. We have assembled all the equipment and done the training needed to undertake a good working weed control project. Rangers have also been learning how to map and keep accurate records of weed works. Works have begun in two small areas where some weed control has taken place before. Weeds we have been tackling are: Neem, Passion Vine, Siratro and Merremia. A number of weedbuster days were held with rangers and the community in 2008. We hope to gradually broaden the areas we work in and develop a longer term fire and weed management plan. Other weeds we will be targeting are:  Bellyache Bush, Leucaena and Butterfly Pea.

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Conserving Dampier Peninsula Vine Thickets

Monsoon Vine Thickets are a rainforest-allied ecosystem found in discrete patches along the Kimberley coast and also inland among rocky springs or streams. The great diversity of plants found within vine thickets provide important habitat for fauna such as Agile Wallaby, Rose Crowned Fruit Dove, Flying Foxes and Great Bowerbirds. Vine Thickets are also culturally important to Indigenous people as they contain many valuable traditional food sources, water and significant sites.

Vine Thickets found along the Dampier Peninsula coastline are recognized as a Threatened Ecological Community (TEC). They are unique in being confined to the landward edge of coastal dunes, are highly fragmented and variable in composition. Many plant species are located at the southern limits of their range and the network of vine thicket patches along the peninsula is as much dictated by the location of ground water springs as it is by the distribution of fruits and seeds by birds and bats between the patches.  The size and species composition of these vine thicket patches is highly variable and can range in size from a stand of several trees to a patch greater than 60ha. Larger, more northern patches on the peninsula, typically comprise a greater diversity of species.

The vine thickets function as a network ecosystem and the movement of frugivorous (fruit-eating) birds, bats and mammals through them ensures sufficient species migration and gene flow to maintain the plant and animal communities in their fragmented state. Equally, the loss and degradation of a single patch can reduce this migration, leaving this and other patches and animal species vulnerable to local extinction.

There are a number of threats to vine thicket vegetation on the peninsula:

-  Weeds
-  Altered Fire Regimes
-  Cattle damage
-  Feral donkeys
-  Off road driving
-  Coastal development pressures

In combination, these threats produce an intensified impact upon the vine thickets. For example, weed infestations provide a heavier fuel load within and around vine thickets leading to hotter and more frequent fires. Vine thicket plants do not optimally recover from hot fires, unlike weed species which can be promoted by the disturbance. Cattle and feral donkeys can spread weed seeds whilst degrading native vegetation, thereby providing opportunities for new weed populations to establish.

The State recognizes that Vine Thickets are a Vulnerable TEC thereby “facing a high risk of total destruction in the medium to long term.” One of the criteria for this is that “the ecological community exists only as highly modified occurrences that may be capable of being rehabilitated if such work begins in the immediate future (within approximately 10 years). Furthermore, in the 2005 assessment, the WA TEC Scientific Committee recommended that the communities be upgraded to ‘Endangered’, which means they face a very high risk of total destruction in the near future. As yet, the official listing has not been updated to this status.

Comprehensive survey work conducted in 2001 through the Broome Botanical Society (Black et al. in prep) obtained additional data on the occurrences of the vine thickets, the degree of threatening pressures and prioritisation for their management.  The survey work identified townsites and areas along the Peninsula as a priority for immediate protection and management action.

For more information about this Threatened Ecological Community download:
Monsoonal Vine Thicket. A TEC in the west Kimberley factsheet

Posters can be picked up at the EK office or market stall.
Contact ekweeds@environskimberley.org.au for your copy.

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In 2007 Department of Environment and Conservation (Pilbara region) initiated a pilot project through their Biodiversity North Program to address the myriad of threats to Vine Thickets on the Dampier Peninsula. The project aimed to create a greater awareness about this TEC and implement some on-ground management activities whilst providing training and employment opportunities for remote Indigenous communities. The Environs Kimberley Community WEED Project has been collaborating with Alison McGilvray at DEC Karratha to implement this project since its inception.   

Many groups have been consulted and have thrown their support behind the projects, including: Department of Environment and Conservation, Traditional Owner groups, the Kimberley Land Council, Kimberley TAFE.  Both the Bardi Jawi Rangers and the Minyirr Park Rangers operate with extensive support from the Kimberley Land Council. The Bardi Jawi Rangers and representatives from Minyirr Park and Goolarabooloo Association have been putting the project together on the ground and doing a fantastic job!  

Read more about our weed work in Vine Thickets in a paper put together for the State NRM Conference (Bridgetown March/April 2008).
Download NRM Conference paper.

“Search and Destroy Missions” in less degraded vine thickets near Chile Creek and Margoon have led to isolated weed outbreaks being identified and removed.
Inset: Dwayne George and Terry Mcarthy remove Citrillus lanatus and Louise (EK) and Bardi Jawi Rangers take weed samples for identification.

By surveying other vine thicket patches, such as this foray into the vine thicket corridor surrounding Weedong Lake, further threats such as cattle damage have been identified and then solutions sought.

One of the highlights of the project has been a shared planting day with Bardi Jawi Rangers and One Arm Point Remote Community School.

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Pictures: Works at Hidden Valley included the removal of approximately 40 Neem trees invading Vine Thicket and surrounding Pindan woodland. Native plants including Gubinge Terminalia ferdinandiana, Marool Terminalia petiolaris, Mirda Gyrocarpus americanus, Guwal Fluggea virosa and Ngamarnajina Ficus opposita were planted in bare areas where these tree weeds had been removed. Works were carried out by Minyirr Park Rangers in December so the newly planted trees will have the best chance of establishing throughout the wet.

Working with Karajarri Rangers

One of the important aspects of weed control is the location and identification of pest plants. The Community Weed Project has been working with Kimberley TAFE to deliver the weed identification and control component of the rangers’ Conservation and Land Management Course. We have covered lots of beautiful country looking for weeds. On one of the sites, Passion Vine was making incursions along a paperbark swamp, so we have started works in this area by removing the Passion Vine and piling it for later burning.  In another site we found and removed Castor Oil Bush emerging from an old tip site. As with all weed control projects, weed will continue to emerge from soil-stored seeds or, in the case of vine weeds, from broken fragments. Rangers have been continuing to follow up these works during 2008 and have since found additional sites and weeds to work on.

Saltwater Country Project

In October the Community WEED Project worked with Balanggarra Traditional Owners as part of the Saltwater Country Project coordinated by the Kimberley Land Council. The group was constructing an informative walk-trail along the historical path of the SS Koolama survivors, who were walked from their bombed ship at Koolama Bay to safety by Balanggarra people from the Kalumburu mission.

Environs Kimberley’s main role was to support the team to collect weed and ant samples for AQIS and conduct initial weed works on Calotropis procera (Rubber Bush) invading the beaches near Bertram Cove. The Calotropis infestation was identified from previous Balanggarra sea trips and then confirmed by AQIS as the eastern-most front of the invasion, with a separate infestation occurring at the Berkeley River mouth. The air-filled seed pods are likely to be spread by floating on the ocean currents and landing on beach fronts.  The feathery seeds are also readily dispersed by flood waters and wind. With many hands on deck, two beaches were cleared of the weed by cutting and painting. It was hot, yet rewarding work and I think we will be all up for the challenge of following up next year and expanding the control to other sites along the coast.

a) The infestation of Calotropis was treated at two beaches within the Bertram Cove area	b) Lorraine Alberts and Rachel Edwards remove Calotropis at Betram Cove

c) Frank Weisenberger, Lorraine Alberts and Gary Bundamurra treat Calotropis at Betram Cove.	d) Louise Williams and Rachel Edwards record locality details at Betram Cove.

Water Wise Weeds

The Kimberley is lucky enough to have avoided many of the weeds plaguing other states and more developed areas. However, as most weeds begin life as innocent looking ornamental plants, gardeners in the Kimberley need to be vigilant about what they choose to introduce into their gardens. One of the best ways to do this is to be aware of plants that have weedy characteristics. This might include reading up on documents such as National list of naturalised invasive and potentially invasive garden plants. But better yet, the best alternative is to grow locally native plants that are adapted to local conditions, use less water and will not become weeds.

With this in mind, the Community WEED Project, asked WA Water Corporation to amend its promotion of potentially weedy plants in the Kimberley and Pilbara regions. The plants promoted in their Waterwise booklet included only about 30% native species. Approximately 30% of the exotic species listed had demonstrated weedy behavior in other areas of Australia, including WA and NT. There was concern that conscientious gardeners trying to conserve water and reduce their impact on the environment may be unwittingly creating a far greater problem by supporting the introduction and spread of invasive plants.

Click here to see media release (25 February 2008)

10 April 2008 , EK's Louise Williams points out the declared weed Chinese apple in Broome.

See Broome Advertiser Article (10 April 2008).

In response to a submission by Environs Kimberley, Water Corporation contracted a new consultant to redevelop the Waterwise booklet and remove potentially weedy plants.

With assistance from the  Department of Environment, the Community WEED Project officer  consulted with Shire of Wyndham East Kimberley, Shire of Broome, Department of Agriculture, Kimberley TAFE, Native nurseries, SKIP’s and other members of the Kimberley native plant community to identify problem plants and local native alternatives.

This advice was then delivered to Water Corporation and they incorporated it into a new promotional brochure for the Kimberley region. The previous material was then withdrawn and the website modified.

Many of the problem plants have been removed from the new brochure and it now contains many of the suggested locally native alternatives as well as relevant northern Australian reference material.

http://www.watercorporation.com.au....Garden_Tips_for_the_Kimberley.pdf

Society for Kimberley Indigenous Plants (SKIPS)

SKIP’s meets most Tuesday nights at 5.30pm at Kimberley TAFE in Broome. We collect and propagate seeds of Kimberley plants and distribute seedlings amongst fellow SKIP’s as well as donate them to community members and restoration projects. SKIP’s also conducts field trips to undertake seed collecting as well as sampling plants to contribute to the Regional herbarium. SKIP’s is always trialing the germination and propagation of new species and hopes that this work can expand the knowledge of Kimberley plants, increase the ornamental use of native plants as opposed to exotics as well as increase the availability of a variety of species for use in restoration projects.

SKIP’s is currently developing a website where we can:

- Share knowledge across the Kimberley about seed collection, germination and propagation methods.

- Share tips on garden and design with Kimberley plants.

- Open the website up so Kimberley people can contribute to an expanding photo catalogue of Kimberley plants.

- Assist people with the identification of species.

- Highlight threats to native vegetation such as clearing, weeds and fire

Look out for details on this website in 2009!

Species observed, collected or pressed include (from left) Grevillea refracta Silverleaf Grevillea, Livistonia sp. Kimberley Palm,  Philydrum lanuginosum Frogsmouth, Syzgium eucalyptoides Wild Apple.

Cochlospermum fraseri, Kapok Tree, Terminalia astrota., Ludwigia octovalvis Willow Primrose, Calytrix achaeta.

Weeds on the airways

The Community WEED Project has been raising awareness about weeds on ABC Kimberley Radio and Goolari radio. Click below to see a story about Merremia.

Finalist in WA State Environment Awards

The Environs Kimberley Community WEED project was short-listed as a finalist in the Community Achievement Category  at the 2008 WA State Environment Awards.  Department of Environment, Minyirr Park and EK pooled resources to attend the award night in Perth with rangers from Minyirr Park, Bardi Jawi, Karajarri, EK chairman Peter Mitchell and Alison McGilvray (DEC). The listing valued the role of the project in protecting biodiversity by increasing public awareness and developing the capacity of Kimberley people to identify and respond to the threat of weeds. The application recognised the key partnerships that have been developed with Department of Environment and Conservation, Kimberley TAFE, KLC and Indigenous ranger groups including Bardi Jawi, Minyirr Park, Karajarri and Walmajarri. There was strong representation from Kimberley environmental projects and congratulations goes to the Shire of Wyndham East Kimberley who won the Local Government Leading by Example Award, and Australian Wildlife Conservancy Eco Fire Project which won the Community Achievement Category, and also went on to win the main award!

	Inset: David Wright (Minyirr Park) Peter Mitchell (EK Chair) Alison McGilvray (DEC) John Hopiga (Karajarri Rangers) and Louise Williams (EK)

For more information or assistance CONTACT:

Louise Williams Weeds & Biodiversity – Environs Kimberley Community WEED Project Officer Weed Education & Eradication Delivery M: 0448 472 005 Ph: 08 9192 1922 Fx: 08 9192 5538 PO Box 2281  Broome  WA 6725 ekweeds@environskimberley.org.au www.environskimberley.org.au

The Community WEED Project is funded by Rangelands NRM using Natural Heritage Trust Funding. 

The Dampier Peninsula Vine Thicket Project work is carried out in collaboration with DEC Pilbara Region and funded by Rangelands NRM using Natural Heritage Trust Funding. 

The Community WEED Project works collaboratively with the Kimberley Land Council and Kimberley TAFE.

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