The debate about buffel needs to be broadened to take account of the weed’s current and future commercial as well as social consequences.

The pastoral industry, in love with the irresponsibly introduced plant, has leases over half of the NT, land that is owned by the people of the Northern Territory.

From [31 December 2025] they will have just 43 days to comment on how the government should be dealing with the scourge, declared a weed in 2024, yet still expanding in the region’s prime tourism areas.

The cattle carrying capacity of land in The Centre is two beasts per square kilometre.

Would cattle land, or a good slice of it, not be far better used for tourism which is hugely more labour intensive, while being environmentally sustainable?

Is the current government prepared to risk the destruction of the very major asset underpinning that industry – nature?

Eminent botanists have, for decades, made it clear that buffel may turn The Centre into a ghastly monoculture which no-one would come and see.

Yet the 13 member government appointed committee, looking at how to manage the scourge, does not include a single tourism representative.

Meanwhile four cattle industry spokespersons are getting a voice, alongside bureaucrats and NGOs, putting on the table a system allowing the Minister open slather to expand vast areas under buffel.

It was declared a weed in July 2024 under the Lawler Labor Government.

The current minister, Joshua Burgoyne, is an electrician by trade, an honourable skill but unlikely to equip him for the task he is facing.

But there is no doubt he is up to speed with political tricks, announcing a do-or-die decision a couple of days before Christmas and giving the public six weeks, during which many will still be on holidays, to make and argue for a decision of vital importance to their future and that of their children.

The elephant in the room may well be dollars: Hard figures of tourism vs pastoralism revenue in The Centre are difficult to get but seem to be “about the same”. $850m is a common assumption.

Cattle are 24 to 36 months old (which averages two and a half years) when they are put on the market.

In the Alice 2025 Show sales Hereford steers, weighing around 450kg, were sold for $4.54/kg live weight, just over $2000 per head.

Finished / slaughter cattle aged 24 to 36 months weigh 520kg plus.

Given the poor carrying capacity of land in The Centre, just two beasts per square kilometre, the productivity of a square kilometre of pastoral land is a paltry $1600 per year.

Compare that to how many tourists could be “run” in a square kilometre.

For example, in groups of 10, camping in dry creek beds, cooking on the open fire, sleeping in swags under the stars, surrounded by the variety of grasses and trees that are home to birds whose songs will wake them in the morning, being immersed in the freedom of the bush, all that is for overseas and urban visitors an experience much better than being crammed into camping grounds.

Just ask any local!

Ten such groups in a square kilometre would still not be a crowd. 100 people, for example, at $250 a head, would result in a turnover of $25,000 a night.

At a 50 per cent “occupancy” that would amount to $4.5m a year for that square kilometre, a factor nearly 3000 times greater than compared to the use for cattle.

Each square kilometre used in that way would employ at least 20 people full time.

The buffel debate at the moment is a bit like the glass half full or half empty: It is proposed to prohibit buying and planting seeds for buffel without a permit.

But that also means permits can be issued to perpetuate the spread of an imported plant that “supports intense fires, quick regrowth supports frequent subsequent fires [which] impact many native trees and fire reduces the overstory and top feed in woodlands,” as the NT Government itself declares.

The Buffel Grass Management Strategy: Central Australia 2024 – 2030, in which the word permit is mentioned just once, recently morphed into the Draft Buffel Grass Weed Management Plan 2026 – 2036 in which it occurs 25 times.

That document is now open to public comment until February 12.

Confusion reigns: On December 11, 2025, Mr Burgoyne’s department announced that he “has approved the first ever draft Buffel Grass Weed Management Plan for public consultation”.

In fact nine months earlier, on March 14, 2025, the department invited the public: “Buffel grass management Have Your Say Now Open”.

It is likely that penalties connected with buffel will come under the NT Weeds Management Act 2001: “Breaching general duties to manage weeds constitutes a level 3 environmental offence.”

For individuals that will attract 77 to 770 penalty units.

Between July 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026 a penalty unit is $189.

That means individuals copping the top level will be up for $145,530.

For companies a level 3 environmental offence would attract between 385 and 3,850 penalty units.

That means the top company penalty would be $727,650.

A great incentive to fight buffel – unless, of course, you get the Minister’s OK to do whatever you like.

This article appeared on Alice Springs News on 30 December 2025 and is open for comment there.
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