Springbrook Weedbusters

Springbrook Weedbusters are a volunteer ran group focusing on the removal of weeds in Springbrook National Park. We work alongside National Parks and the Watergum community to help people with the identification, impacts, prevention and control of weeds.

Kahili Ginger

  Springbrook Weedbusters is a community led volunteer group focused on bush regeneration within world heritage-listed Springbrook National Park. Activities include:

• bush regeneration
• plant identification
• educational conservation and environmental awareness events.

With monthly meetups, it is a great way to meet other people and feel empowered in making a positive impact on nature.

Get involved - Like our facebook page and follow us for weedbusting days and weed information!

  https://www.facebook.com/springbrookweedbusters

   

Springbrook WeedBusters (SWB) A little bit about us:

 

Established in 2021, Springbrook Weedbusters are an enthusiastic group of local volunteers and other nature allies from across the broader Gold Coast region. Home to the World Heritage-listed rainforests, Springbrook National Park is a treasure trove of rare, threatened, and interesting species. Having a historic legacy of agriculture in some areas of the Springbrook Plateau, the landscape is a unique mosaic of old growth, natural regrowth, regenerated areas, and degraded pasture (often infested with weeds). Despite their name, the Weed Busters are not just limited to removing weeds, they also plant trees and host conservation events to upskill members’ knowledge.

You can catch the Springbrook Weedbusters on the third Sunday of the month for their regular weeding and bush regeneration sessions. Keep your eye out also on their Facebook and Instagram pages for special events such as the Great Glossy Count, spotlighting for nocturnal animals, and threatened species education.

Springbrook Weedbusters is a collaborative group that share knowledge and ideas. Most events finish with a yarn over morning tea, so you are sure to meet some other nature nerds. All are welcome to join, beginner through to expert. Bring a pair of gardening gloves and the Weedbusters will provide the rest.

 

Activities are usuually in the National Park and on private land, starting with small projects to help members identify their species. With lots to learn and plenty of weeds to go around, we also chose the name to express our focus. Several weed outbreaks have been controlled at Springbrook over the years, so we know what’s achievable. And you don’t see weeds once they’ve gone!

 

It’s also important to recognise Springbrook’s World Heritage values and status as a national biodiversity hotspot. There are literally thousands of plant and animal species within cooee. But sadly, Springbrook NP alone has 82 threatened plants and 39 threatened animals. How many of those can you recognise? And one of the key threats to these species is invasive weeds.

 

 Limited to a few hours a month, our group has no capacity to replace professionals in the National Park. The sort needed, for example, to control the Buddleia outbreak at Purlingbrook, or all the exotic ginger. Instead, we aim to educate and empower landholders to control their own weeds, in turn providing an enormous help to the National Park. 

 

We’ll also provide regular weed information, for example, on how to identify native from exotic gingers. These are just some of our initial ideas. Come along, join in, and help out! Every third Sunday of the month, settlement day area.

Lilium formosanum, common names:

Formosa lily, Taiwan Lily, Tiger Lily.

Whilst this is a beautiful looking flower it’s a very invasive weed. It’s currently in flower here on the mountain making it very easy to spot! (January)

Control:

Hand weeding. Cut down the flowering stem before the plant sets seed. Remove the bulb, taking care not to leave any bulb scales in ground. You may have to remove some of the surrounding soil to catch small bulblets that break away from the parent plant.

Place the weeds in your green waste bin or a garbage bag and then dump in the general waste bin. Do not put them in the compost as the vegetative material can remain viable and you could end up spreading the weeds in your garden.

For additional reading please check out the below.

https://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/.../environmental_weeds...

 

 

https://weeds.brisbane.qld.gov.au/cut-and-remove

 

 

Kahili ginger (Hedychium gardnerianum) is regarded as an environmental weed in Queensland and New South Wales. It forms vast, dense, colonies that smother and displace native groundcover vegetation. These dense stands also can prevent the regeneration of trees and shrubs, significantly modify the habitat available to native animals, and eventually threaten the integrity of the forest ecosystems. This species prefers moist habitats, can tolerate shade, and can dominate riparian areas and the understorey of wetter forests in sub-tropical and tropical regions.Kahili ginger (Hedychium gardnerianum) has escaped cultivation in south-eastern Queensland and is spreading into rainforest at Mt Glorious, Mt Nebo, Springbrook National Park, Lamington National Park, Mt Tamborine and Buderim. It is also reported to be invading rainforest near Mackay in central Queensland. It was recently ranked among the top 200 most invasive species in south-eastern Queensland and is regarded as a serious threat to sub-tropical and tropical rainforests throughout Queensland

 

https://weeds.brisbane.qld.gov.au/weeds/kahili-ginger