Literature review: Impact of Chilean needle grass ... - Weeds Australia

were known by April 1996 showed that they were all along the Darebin Creek and its tributaries, within or close to the Epping
Road corridor (Hansford 2006). At its closest point, Epping Road is 400 m from Tatlow Drive.
Similarly the first recorded Victorian infestation of N. trichotoma, c. 4 ha, in 1958 at Broadmeadows (McLaren, Stajsic and
Iaconis. 2004), “where it was believed to have existed for about 20 years” (Parsons 1973), was possibly about 8 km from Epping.
Searches soon after the first discovery found five other patches “just north and north-east of Melbourne” in areas “apparently ...
at one time butchers’ holding paddocks ... presumably carrying sheep from infested areas in New South Wales” (Parsons 1973 p.
152). However both N. neesiana and N. leucotricha were first recorded in 1934 at Northcote, c. 14 km S of Epping (McLaren et
al. 1998).
Ian Suitor, a farmer with property off Somerville Road, Greenvale (pers. comm. 22 November 2006) reported that the first place
N. neesiana appeared in his area was on land managed by Tommy Thomas, a dealer in livestock, on a granitic hill,
approximately 0.5 km north of Greenvale Reserve. Previously it had been believed (Charles Grech pers. comm. 22 November
2006) that Suitor’s land had been invaded downstream along Moonee Ponds Creek.
N. neesiana was not recorded as a component of the basalt plains flora by Willis (1964), and was not found by Groves (1965) at
St Albans, where it is now common. Its distribution in Victoria was described by Willis (1970 p. 182) as: “locally frequent on
basaltic grassland north from Melbourne (Fairfield, N. Preston, Broadmeadows etc.) and along a railway embankment at N.
Brighton.” In 1972 its known distribution was still reportedly restricted to major grid N (the Melbourne region) (Churchill and de
Corona 1972), however Gardener (1998) recorded a distribution point near Koroit in the Western District with the first collection
there in 1967, shown in the ARMCANZ et al. (2001) map, which also showed a 1960s locality in the Horsham region. Stuwe
and Parsons (1977) did not record it at any of 59 T. triandra grassland remnants they surveyed in 1976.
By 1986 it had been recorded from “Bung Bong”, Yan Yean; Purnim; Woodstock, south east of Whittlesea; and Rosanna
(Vickery et al. 1986 p. 81, herbarium material examined). Beauglehole (1987) recorded it in sector F of the Wimmera, bounded
roughly by Horsham, Dimboola, Jeparit, Nyamville, Minyip and Lubeck. In the western region of Melbourne, McDougall (1987)
recorded populations in remnant native vegetation at Napier Park, Essendon; O’Brien Park, Sunshine and the nearby Braybrook
Rail Reserve Grassland, and Laverton North Grassland Reserve, Altona North, and recommended control or monitoring at each
site. Gardener (1998) recorded a distribution point near Geelong with the first collection there in 1984, and another in the North
East in the Wangaratta region, first recorded in 1989. Bartley et al. (1990) described the plant as a serious threat to remnant
grasslands in the Melbourne area, including the Laverton North Grassland Reserve, Derrimut Grasslands and railway reserves.
They summarised the then known Victorian distribution: major grid cells N (Melboure region), K (near Warrnambool) and C (in
the Wimmera) (see Willis 1970 or Churchill and de Corona 1972 for a grid map), and sectors D, F and O within the Land
Conservation Council’s Melbourne study area (citing Beauglehole 1983). Staff of the Botany Department, LaTrobe University,
had also found it at sites in sector B to as far to the south-west as Geelong (Grid P) (Bartley et al. 1990). Gardener (1998)
recorded a distribution point to the west of Bendigo, with the first collection there in 1990. Carr et al. (1992) summarised the
distribution as ‘limited’, in medium to large populations (rather than widespread, or rare and localised, or with small populations)
in lowland grassland and grassy woodland and rock outcrop vegetation. Stuwe (1994 p. 94) warned that it threatened “to
dominate several grassland remnants near Melbourne”.
Walsh (1994) recorded the presence of N. neesiana in seventeen 6’ x 6’ grid cells (c. 9 x 10.8 km or c. 10,000 ha) based on
records in the Flora Information System (managed currently by the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment),
National Herbarium of Victoria records, and other “verifiable” reports. These were concentrated in the area west and north of
Melbourne (8 grid cells) including Whittlesea, with 4 cells in the Ballarat-Maryborough-Tarnagulla area, 2 cells in the North
East (Wangaratta-Beechworth area), 2 in the Geelong-Torquay area and 1 in the Warrnambool area. No Wimmera record was
included. Walsh (1994 p. 378) mentioned also Cressy (65 km W of Geelong) but failed to map such a record. Kirkpatrick et al.
(1995) noted that it was found at Cressy in 1994. Walsh (1994 p. 378) considered it “Locally common ... mostly on basalt soils
and often near watercourses, but established and spreading on improved pasture and road verges”.
By the 1990s N. neesiana distribution was ballooning. Kirkpatrick et al. (1995 p. 35) stated that its “rate of spread in the two
grassland reserves in Melbourne [Derrimut and Laverton North] [had] shocked botanists”. Intensive publicity and Victorian
government investigations from c. 1993 greatly increased knowledge of its occurrence. The Victorian Government employed
four regional facilitators, in the Port Phillip, North East, South West and North West regions, and they undertook mapping of
infestations, with data being recorded on the Pest Management Information System (later the Integrated Pest Management
System, IPMS), a Department of Primary Industries database (Iaconis 2006a). Mapping was also undertaken in the Rural City of
Wangaratta, and of roadside infestations in the Shire of Indigo (Iaconis 2006a). In the North Central Region, Liebert (1996)
reported 4 urban infestations in Bendigo, 1 infestation at Campbell’s Creek, 1 at Clunes, 3 at Maryborough, 2 at Tarnagulla and
2 at Tooleen, mostly discovered by local field naturalists, and mostly on roadsides and railway sidings. Precise details were
provided of the location and extent of each of these infestations along with a description of the habitat and the nature of the
infestation. Almost all of them were on disturbed soils. An up-to-date Victorian distribution map (attributed to David McLaren)
was also provided, showing that approximately 23 minor grids (6’ x 6’) contained infestations, including one in the North East
near Wangaratta and one in the South West near Terang. N. neesiana found in the Sunbury-Bulla areas was believed to have
originated by dispersal of seed or roadside slashers from the Greenvale district (Nair 1993). Stewart (1996) described extensive
cover in Broadmeadows Valley Park.
According to Frederick (2002) the number of infested sites known in Victoria in 1998 was 43, and 338 in November 2001,
approximately 60% on public land, nearly all on roadsides, along waterways or in flood zones, and mostly small patches or
isolated plants. Infested areas totalling 350 ha had been discovered in that period with an estimated total ground cover of c. 24
ha, reduced to c. 15 ha after treatments. Frederick (2002) provided a detailed tabulation of the number of infested sites (land
parcels or management units) and the year of their discovery at 19 localities in the North Central Region. New infestations were
still being discovered in well investigated areas at the time of writing. In the Western District the plant had been detected in the
Moyston area by 2000 (Dalton 2000).
42