Did you know that Council's weed control program on its network of roads, reserves and operational lands is almost entirely funded by your rates? Unfortunately, in the current climate it is very difficult for government agencies and landowners alike to attract funding to manage widespread weeds and so the cost of control is typically worn by the landowner. On occasion, funding is made available through specific programs and Council embraces these opportunities to reduce the burden on its budget, enabling available funds to be redirected to other maintenance and construction projects.
Like all land managers, Council has an obligation to manage state and regional priority weeds on its lands. State and regional priority weeds are defined either within the NSW Biosecurity Regulations 2017 or within the South East Regional Strategic Weed Management Plan and include weeds like orange hawkweed, parthenium weed, Coolatai grass, Spanish heath and gorse to name a few. Widespread weeds such as serrated tussock, African lovegrass, St John's wort, blackberry, and thistles are no longer designated as state or regional priority weeds.
Most weed control on Council land is not undertaken because of a legal obligation, but instead as a good neighbour policy. Like many landowners, Council manages a variety of weeds on its land to protect its assets and to limit spread to neighbouring lands. Roadsides are a well-known vector for the spread of weeds and Council manages weeds on roadsides to limit this spread for the benefit of the broader community.
As part of its recent cost saving measures, Council further reduced its weed spraying budget in the 2024–25 financial year to $540,000. With this budget reduction came some hard decisions and a reduction in service levels to some areas. Specifically, Council has rationalised its weed control program by reducing the number of contractors engaged to control weeds, by reducing expenditure in areas where weeds are prolific on adjoining lands and by further prioritising the weeds that it controls.
'Our budget for spraying (priority) weeds on Council lands is directed primarily towards protecting the region's agricultural and environmental assets from the impact of weeds' Council's Biosecurity Coordinator, Brett Jones said. 'That means, the vast majority of our weed control efforts occur in the areas to the south, east and west of Cooma, with only a skeleton budget retained for managing weeds to the north of Cooma.'
Mr Jones said 'We have applied other cost saving measures like boomspraying road verges. This practice, where appropriate, serves to both reduce vegetation height along the road verge for safety reasons and it controls a lot of the weeds that would otherwise have to be spot sprayed at greater cost. In addition to that, it reduces our reliance on slashing, which has a significantly greater impact on our budget and is a primary vector for the spread of weeds.'
The cost savings were introduced as a result of Council's financial challenges and its focus on becoming more financially sustainable into the future. With over 2,500kms of roads to manage and a short growing season for most weeds, Mr Jones warns that 'in many cases Council's weed spraying activities simply will not occur in a timeframe or to a standard that we have achieved in the past. We will, however continue to prioritise the control of African lovegrass and other widespread weeds in the higher quality agricultural areas where they are not well established.'
