No Name Creek (first look)

[Darlyn]

Amazing fact number 5) I have created a new excuse for people to pull a sickie, I can't get out of my house he he
I thought I had used them all

 

[SteveNT]

You are a truly fortunate human being....Keep it under your hat..[/QU

Don't ask don't get bro. There are very few significant events in my life I haven't put my hand up for!

Sometimes you get shredded but if you dont ask........

.....................you dont get.

 

[SteveNT]

For those interested I still cant get in yet. Just cant coordinate time off with my mate. (Work committments not synchronising) Out bush again for the next few weeks with work so with the "Build Up" looming it will be hot work when we get in again. Still cant wait. I'll happily cancel an Arnhem Land trip to get a good look at this system.

 

[Beard]

Its fantastic to know that places that have been untouched and unspoilt still exist, even if its only in small pockets. I was talking about this to my wife just a few days back. It'd be great to find some isolated pocket in the mountains but I fear that due to past high country grazing, the Snowy Hydro Scheme and now the countless tourists that flock to the snowys, both winter and summer, they will be very few and far between. To the west anyway, east in amongst the coastal escarpment there may be something worth finding. Its pretty bloody inaccessable. When the kids are a bit older they will be palmed off to the grandparents for a week while some walk in exploring is undertaken.

Thanks for the pics and the imagination they create Steve.

 

[SteveNT]

No worries Beard.

We have a lot of spots that are "optimum" for a few weeks only (too much water/ not enough water/ best after burning/ best before, etc. ) My recommendation is to imagine the place when perfect (water levels/ heat/cold/ crowds) and target it then. My calendar is dotted with "best time for" notes.

We're doing a three dayer on a houseboat on Coroboree Billabong (Mary River) in a few weeks. It's food for the soul!

 

[Chanzey]

How often do you guys do vehicle/personal washdowns for seeds and mud? Would be terrible if you guys were the first in there and brought a bunch of weed seeds with you.

 

[SteveNT]

Yea spot on! We do regular checks (esp cuffs on long pants.) Mesh screen over the radiator which goes onto the fire if we've been through gamba/ mission/ grader grass. We just removed an infestation of mission grass from a fishing spot we go to. Other people use the site so maybe us maybe not. But it was us that hand pulled every plant there.

 

[Chanzey]

Ah that's good then, around Townsville has been a pretty bad season for grader grass, coming up everywhere, wherever someone has slashed it has come up pretty much.

 

[Radar]

Ah that's good then, around Townsville has been a pretty bad season for grader grass, coming up everywhere, wherever someone has slashed it has come up pretty much.

This is because around Townsville the response to weeds like grader grass is to slash them :lol: They can handle slashing, the natives they compete with can't, and slashing spreads the seeds to all 4 winds. I've spent far too many working weeks in the past handpulling weeds like this. Fairly rubbish work, so I can appreciate the effort you've gone to to try and remove them Steve.

 

[SteveNT]

Townsville has creeks full of gouramis, cichlids, tetras, barbs and most aquarium exotics. Healthy populations of gambusia, guppies and platys. At this stage we have (happily) none of these.

There is grader grass the full length of the Central Arnhem Road but 10 meters from the road the natives rule. It needs a disturbed area to get happy. Sadly that's not true for mission grass or the real monster Gamba. In areas around Adelaide River all the trees and shrubs have been burnt to death in Gamba fires and there is now a monoculture. Gamba only. 12 years ago I made representations to our Govt. when the advance was stoppable but they didn't declare it a weed until a decade later. Now it is beyond eradication and millions are being spent in "control".

 

[Chanzey]

Townsville has creeks full of gouramis, cichlids, tetras, barbs and most aquarium exotics. Healthy populations of gambusia, guppies and platys. At this stage we have (happily) none of these.

There is grader grass the full length of the Central Arnhem Road but 10 meters from the road the natives rule. It needs a disturbed area to get happy. Sadly that's not true for mission grass or the real monster Gamba. In areas around Adelaide River all the trees and shrubs have been burnt to death in Gamba fires and there is now a monoculture. Gamba only. 12 years ago I made representations to our Govt. when the advance was stoppable but they didn't declare it a weed until a decade later. Now it is beyond eradication and millions are being spent in "control".

Same has happened with Siam Weed in North Queensland, I've heard recently the funding for eradication has been recently cut, (which was pitiful anyway $10M for 10 years) so except to see North Queensland destroyed by this in the next 20 years.

Which means it turns to local council to try to control it, which is useless, as I work for Townsville City Council and we don't even had the resources to control any weed let alone Siam.

 

[browny]

we need more people like you and your mob Steve a true Aussie champ, try your best to keep No name creek a secret

 

[Chanzey]

This is because around Townsville the response to weeds like grader grass is to slash them :lol: They can handle slashing, the natives they compete with can't, and slashing spreads the seeds to all 4 winds. I've spent far too many working weeks in the past handpulling weeds like this. Fairly rubbish work, so I can appreciate the effort you've gone to to try and remove them Steve.

Haha I know what you mean, handweeding is one of the most boring tasks, but has probably the best outcomes (can avoid spraying/killing natives, gives a chance for seeds to germinate and is relatively easy(as long as you do follow up), I cant really walk past a single piece of stinking passionfruit/snakeweed/rubbervine etc without pulling it out.

 

[SteveNT]

Our big fear here is Pond Apple.

I managed Conservation Volunteers Australia (Cairns & FNQ) for a while. We had two teams of 10 (trained FT employees, not volunteers) working on Pond Apple full time but never made a dent in it. It has been found in Darwin & Batchelor- people liked the flower and brought the seeds back from Cairns. Both infestations were destroyed but if got into the Arafura Swamp or other massive Ramsar listed Wetlands up here it would be impossible to control.

I make sure that all 100+ of our Rangers are trained to recognise not only the existing weeds here but all the horrors that will eventually try to invade from Qld.

we need more people like you and your mob Steve a true Aussie champ, try your best to keep No name creek a secret

Thanks mate. I can be a real ratbag if want to! I'm no greenie, more of a brownie (ha ha), I support mining, pastoralism and shared land use as long as it is done in an environmentally sustainable way. And education is the key which is why I work in Training, specifically Land Management.

 

[saratoga]

I make sure that all 100+ of our Rangers are trained to recognise not only the existing weeds here but all the horrors that will eventually try to invade from Qld.

Great to see you are proactive Steve; too many people wait until things become a problem and then they still don't react!

 

[Asharee133]

Just eat the pond apple LOL. It's a relative of the custard apple (Annona squamosa)

 

[SteveNT]

Just eat the pond apple LOL. It's a relative of the custard apple (Annona squamosa)

That's how it got here. They tried grafting custard apple onto pond apple root stock because it is much more resilient. Unfortunately it was so resilient the custard apple died and the pond apple took over. The bloody thing even invades and replaces mangroves. It is already half way up Cape York, the seed floats and germinates on the high tide line. From there cassowarys and pigs spread the seed inland. Evil ******.

FYI We have a lot of custard apple growing around old chinese mine shafts. The chinese pushed seeds into the shaft walls (at the entrance) because custard apple only grows well if it's roots are kept cool. They dont spread away from the shafts so are not considered a weed. And the night tigers find them a perfect roost for catching micro bats.