buffel grass

Joanne Tucker. One of Australia’s worst invasive weeds has been identified in 31 new locations in the Northern and Yorke region, including Moonta ... “The roadside infestations have just jumped the fenceline into the adjoining properties, so we will work with those landowners to control the buffel on their properties”: David Hughes, Northern and Yorke Landscape Board team leader.

A campaigner and hands-on combatant of buffel for a quarter century, Alex Nelson, says the government’s initiative about the imported grass taking over much of The Centre is a time wasting exercise. “There is no reason for not declaring it a noxious weed. They have all the information they need. This is kicking the problem down the road.”

Buffel and gamba grass are highly flammable and increase the intensity and frequency of bushfires and impact the biodiversity of the natural environment ... The TWG provided its findings, which recommend a Weed Advisory Committee be formed to build on the findings and develop a management plan, with the view of declaring buffel grass a weed.

Mike Gillam. Travelling south, I leave Alice Springs before first light and I’m rewarded and indeed frustrated by a brilliant meteor plummeting to earth in the south west. The heavenly body is primarily bright green with an orange tail and I fail to capture it even though the camera sits on the seat beside me ready for such moments.

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.

The Territory Labor Government has determined the next step to reduce the impact of buffel grass in Central Australia. The Buffel Grass Technical Working Group (TWG) was formed in 2023 to address environmental concerns around buffel grass, which makes wildfires more intense and impacts biodiversity.

Alex Vaughan. Why is Central Australia almost the only region nationally at an increased wildfire risk across autumn? The National Council for Fire and Emergency Services unequivocally links this risk to buffel grass invasion and buffel grass regrowth  and curing, enabling fire conditions to overcome the longstanding norm for fire regimes across arid and semi-arid lands where “wildfire frequency is typically once a decade”.

There were a number of deliberate ignitions, mainly on roadsides, however over the past week the majority of fires are the result of lightning strikes, according to Chief Fire Control Officer Tony Fuller. “On Friday we had at least 14 new fires as a result of lightning,” he says.

Big water bombers still cannot be used in Alice Springs which is again surrounded by wildfires ... Preparations for the use of large fire bombers … are locked in a Catch 22 situation: The NT is part of a national system for the use of such aircraft but “they are ineffective given the location”: Tony Fuller, of Bushfires NT.

Buffel grass is a threat to remote Indigenous communities in Australia because it causes heightened fire risk, damage to cultural sites, and a reduction in the ability to pass on cultural knowledge to the next generation ... Left unmanaged, the weed poses a threat to grazing and cropping systems because it spreads quickly in hotter, stormier weather.