The Bradshaw Walk is one of The Centre’s small gems.

Starting at the Overland Telegraph Station, five minutes from the CBD, the slim track winds its way south, along a low range of hills at right.

On the opposite side, from elevated positions, walkers can catch glimpses of the Todd River.

The region’s iconic orange rocks dominate the landscape.

Between them glitter brooks, after the rain we’ve just enjoyed, narrow enough to step across. Tadpoles are celebrating the end of their underground wait.

It’s hard to tell how many of these small water courses there are as you may be crossing the same one several times – maybe five?

Bushes and trees range from mulgas, corkwoods and witchetties to majestic gums.

You’re close to town yet it feels miles away, a mini-version of the Larapinta Trail, an hour return, a hint of the adventures that make up The Centre’s powerful appeal.

This is where the good story ends.

The green that surrounds you is buffel, as far as the eye can see, a malicious plant predator that has overwhelmed much of The Centre, and is continuing its relentless advance.

Renowned Central Australian botanist Peter Latz, who has studied the introduced plant for decades, likens the magnitude of impact on the country of buffel with the megafauna’s extinction.

On the Bradshaw walk there is only one ground cover that is not buffel, interspersed with couch, which is almost as bad.

That patch measures about 30 square metres.

After decades of warnings and campaigning, and buffel having been declared a weed in South Australia, the NT Government has now taken the significant step of replacing one buffel committee with another.

It is charged with considering declaring buffel a weed but Chief Minister and Minister of the Environment Eva Lawler hastens to add that buffel grass remains highly valued by cattle producers.

Her department says: “All walking tracks are regularly assessed under a walking track assessment framework to ensure they comply the walking track rating against national standards.

“The Bradshaw walk was last assessed on 12 March 2024 to identify a schedule required works.”

The department does not disclose what has been “identified” during what Mr Latz describes as the worst buffel season ever.

The recent heavy rains created an ideal opportunity for spraying the weed which needs to occur during its vigorous growth phase. There is no indication that this is happening along the Bradshaw walk.

Says the department: “In 2023 and to date, approximately 144 hours of ranger hours have been spent on slashing and spraying the Bradshaw Walk, Riverside Walk and various other sections of trails and walks that are located within the Alice Springs Telegraph Station footprint.”

That is about 20 ranger minutes a day.

“This includes engagement of Aboriginal Rangers through the Central Land Council, and the use of low security prisoners from the Alice Springs Corrections Facility. This commitment is ongoing.”

The department did not disclose how many of the 600 inmates of the local gaol were engaged in the work, or could be.

The commitment is not quantified but Mr Latz’s own work is a measure of the effort required.

He has a 10 hectare block: “I’ve spent the last four years trying to get rid of buffel. I only succeeded by hard work for half of my full-time work.

“Australia was dominated by browsers in the past. It didn’t involve grasses that were fire and grazing tolerant. Grasses were mostly under trees and water courses.

“The CSIRO said we’ll fix that, so they went to four or five different countries and brought back all the different strands of the buffel grass, a beautiful gene pool to find the best one to take over this country.

“All the pastoralists were very happy. We haven’t had any bad dust storms for 50 years. But are we better off?

“You just have to drive along Ilparpa Road. On the eastern side there’s been three or four buffel fires and there is hardly a tree to be seen,” says Mr Latz.

“But on the western side, which hasn’t been burned for 50 years, there’s lots of mulga scrub with ironwoods and other stuff in amongst them.

“The only way we’re going to do it is by bringing in biological control just as we had to bring in two diseases to deal with our rabbits.

“We haven’t got rid of the rabbit. But they are no longer a bigger problem.”

Widely reported discussion of biological control includes the importation of buffel eating bugs from Queensland where they are treated as a threat to the pastoral industry.

Mr Latz says conventional control was carried out around the Desert Park, but large area removal is impossible without biological control.

“But the pastoralists will try to stop it happening.”

This article appeared on Alice Springs News on 9 April 2024.