Buffel grass fight reaches Canberra as cattle industry pushes back
Buffel grass spreads across arid country in Central Australia near Watarrka National Park. (ABC Landline: Cameron Lang)
A delegation of traditional owners has taken their fight for buffel grass to be formally recognised as a nationally significant weed to Canberra in a last-ditch effort to influence the federal government's decision.
They, along with environmental groups, are at odds with the cattle industry over the national weed status nomination currently being considered by the government.
Despite being a declared weed in both South Australia and the Northern Territory, buffel grass is an important pasture source for a large part of the nation's cattle industry.
Buffel grass dominates the landscape here on the roadside near Watarrka National Park in the NT. (ABC Landline: Cameron Lang)
Environmental advocates, including Ellen Ryan-Colton who co-authored the nomination, argue buffel grass should be added to the list of 32 weeds already recognised by the Australian government as being of national significance.
Dr Ryan-Colton is an ecologist and senior researcher at the Australian National University (ANU).
"It is changing the landscape across all different types of habitats,"Dr Ryan-Colton said.
"From fertile plains to creek lands to rocky hills and sand dunes, it's happening at scale, so across millions of hectares of desert landscapes."
Sacred sites and ecosystems at risk
Buffel grass was planted across Australia's arid interior in the 1920s.
Since then, it has spread rapidly and replaced native flora and fauna.
Dr Ellen Ryan-Colton from ANU is a co-author of the Weed Of National Significance (WONs) submission. (ABC Landline: Kerry Staight)
Sacred sites and areas of cultural significance, in Central Australia particularly, are at risk of being overrun by buffel.
In Canberra alongside the traditional owners fighting for buffel grass to be given a WONs listing, Richard Swain is an Indigenous ambassador with the Invasive Species Council.
"You can't see such an all-encompassing invasion of country and not feel that it's a definite no-brainer that if we don't find a way to control it … this country will never be the same again,"he said.
Around Alice Springs, buffel grass is a significant problem.
Richard Swain, Indigenous ambassador with the Invasive Species Council, says buffel grass threatens sacred sites and areas of cultural significance in Central Australia. (ABC Landline: Cameron Lang)
"We can't aim to be eradicating it, but we need to be extremely strategic and coordinated," Mayor Asta Hill said.
"It's by best estimates something like 80 per cent of the ground covering of this place," she said.
"It is this invasive species, this weed that is absolutely ubiquitous."
Pastoralists rely on buffel grass for feed
The pastoral industry, which operates across 45 per cent of the Northern Territory, relies significantly on buffel grass as fodder.
It has lobbied hard against a Weed of National Significance listing.
Romy Carey chief executive of the NT Cattlemen's Association says the cattle industry relies heavily on buffel grass as pasture across northern Australia. (ABC: Peter Garnish)
Romy Carey, chief executive of the Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association said there would be unintended consequences if it were listed.
"We will see additional regulatory burden, and we will see additional red tape if we progress down the path of this declaration," Ms Carey said.
She said when the Northern Territory government declared buffel grass a weed in 2024, it had an impact on the industry.
"The uncertainty for producers since 2024 around how they develop their land through these regions and what investments that they make … there's been uncertainty for new investors coming in," she said.
"It puts it in the same category as things like athel pine, blackberry bushes, bellyache bush — and it's certainly absolutely not that."
"This is a productive pasture species, and we're very steadfast in our opposition of it being nominated for a Weed of National Significance."
Buffel grass central to desert cattle operations
At The Garden Station, north-east of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, father and son Andy and Steve Hayes run around 6,000 head of Droughtmaster cattle and rely heavily on buffel grass.
"We do live in the desert, so not very often we've got feed. We have more dry years than we have good years,"Andy Hayes said.
"Buffel grass is a big part of our life."
Andy and Steve Hayes run thousands of cattle at Garden Station, where buffel grass is an important feed source. (ABC Landline: Cameron Lang)
"You might have noticed that we have got a lot of natives, but buffel grass … you know with 20 points [five millilitres] of rain and you've got green feed again. Cattle like green feed."
Pastoral use of buffel grass as fodder extends beyond the NT throughout Australia's dry interior.
"Extensively across Queensland, northern South Australia, parts of western New South Wales," Will Evans, Cattle Australia CEO said.
"These are extensive production systems; we're talking about tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of square kilometres of Australia that has buffel grass on it."
Cattle Australia chief executive Will Evans says buffel grass is relied upon by large grazing operations across inland Australia. (ABC Landline: Cameron Lang)
In Queensland, the cattle industry's peak industry body has warned repeatedly against listing buffel grass as a Weed of National significance.
"The cattle industry in Queensland is 49 per cent of the national herd," said AgForce Queensland president Shane McCarthy.
"It [buffel grass] has revolutionised some of that country in especially central Queensland, and taken those areas from, you know, subsistence sort of farming areas to highly productive."
But supporters of the national weed listing argue pastoralists' operations are not at risk, even if a weed declaration is made.
Volunteers at Landcare remove buffel grass during a weed-clearing effort near Alice Springs. (ABC Landline: Cameron Lang)
"By no means are we trying to dictate the terms to anyone who's using it for grazing, but we have got plenty to do to manage this species of pasture and we're running out of time."
"A weed recognition is all we need to just start moving forward."
The delegation in Canberra wants the government to fund a national buffel coordinator and to develop a plan to restore and protect arid ecosystems and reduce the increased fire risk from buffel grass.
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