Blackberry control is underway

Blackberry, a weed of national significance is being targeted by Condamine Alliance through funding from the Australian Government’s Caring for Our Country (CfoC) program.

Toowoomba Regional Council have been contracted by Condamine Alliance to treat blackberry patches north of the nationally identified containment line. This line roughly follows the northern boundary of the Southern Downs Regional Council area.

The first patch has been treated on a section of Main Roads managed land in Drayton.

Condamine Alliance's Biodiversity Leader, Jayne Thorpe, has watched the patch grow over the past 4 years and said, "When my daughter started attending Drayton Primary School I would come into town on the Drayton Connection road every day. I noticed an unusual plant growing amongst the grass on the roadside so stopped one day to collect a piece for identification and discovered that it was blackberry. I would estimate that the patch has grown about five times the size it was when I first noticed it, it now extends well above the grass and was growing vigorously.”

The funding provided by Caring For our Country has stopped this patch in its tracks. Enquiries are underway with Department of Employment, Economic Development and InnovationI to determine how far the seed from this patch could have been transported by birds and foxes. This will assist Condamine Alliance to work out what area of native habitat has come under threat from this blackberry patch in the past and where new outliers of blackberry could be expected to come up.

With increasing climate variability our native habitats need all the help they can get to remain resilient and continue to provide ecosystem services to the broad community. Reducing weed threats like Blackberry is one way that Condamine Alliance with the contribution of Toowoomba Regional Council and Main Roads Queensland can support the continued functioning of the catchment landscape for everyone’s benefit.