Tonight! On weed watch.

[puredingo]

The Shoalhaven river; anything below Tallowa damn...forget about it. Walls upon walls of Lantana.
Like I’ve never seen before, an absolute nightmare.

[johnw]

The Shoalhaven river; anything below Tallowa damn...forget about it. Walls upon walls of Lantana.
Like I’ve never seen before, an absolute nightmare.

Many years ago I remember visiting the Four (now 3?) Lookouts track above the dam. I bumped into a Canadian guy who said he was looking for a way down to Apple Tree Flat to camp. I distinctly recall thinking that spot appeared to be a weed-fest even then, and even viewed from above at a distance. I've encountered other places with rampant Lantana - suburbia of course, but along the Nepean River north of Glenbrook Gorge used to be a shocker. Admittedly the track did cut through it there.

[michael_p]

ABC story on the spread in Queensland: https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2019- ... s/11190098 I had no idea it was toxic and could kill livestock.

It has spread rapidly in the bushland near my place. Several years back it was rare to see any, now there are pockets all over the place and some spots are developing into walls of weeds.

[puredingo]

Yep, it was next level infestation alright.

My original plan was to walk down from the dam and up Steer Ck, meet the drovers track and loop back to the dam. But the Lantana started to show just before Apple tree flat and got worse. Even before I hit the flat proper, when I was only in moderate weed world, I thought I would take a high line and tuck up under the scarp where usually the weeds don’t come in as hard...but no. From river to rock face it was wall to wall.

The 500 meters or so as bashed back towards the river I don’t think my feet actually ever touched the ground, just a bed of twisted lantana roots. Usually there is an animal pad or a couple of tunnels to get you through but even the local wildlife weren’t stupid enough to get involved in this mess. By the time I crossed the river from the flat and made it down to the creek the Lantana showed no signs of relenting and I’d had enough....the stink of that stuff gives me nightmares these days.