14 October 2024 | Braving the weather during a period of seemingly endless rain and wind, Strahan-based Landcare group, Friends of the Henty, spent two days on the Ocean Beach Trail recently, pulling out montpellier broom seedlings. 

Joining them were volunteers from the Tasmanian Student Landcare Association who came all the way from Hobart, Parks and Wildlife staff, Strahan locals, and committed volunteers from the North-West.

Working east to west along the trail, they revisited hotspots where mature montpellier broom plants once stood. At each site, a burst of regrowth broom plants was waiting for them. Though initially overwhelming, it was encouraging to see so much of the seedbank germinating in big bursts, as each plant removed means one less seed waiting in the soil. 

Montpellier broom is a declared noxious weed from Europe that is highly invasive across Tasmania, especially on the sandy soils around Strahan. It grows very densely and is full of flammable oil, making it a serious fire hazard. Its ability to out-compete native vegetation reduces the plant diversity, and therefore reduces the quality of habitat for wildlife.

For the last four years, Friends of the Henty have been fighting this infestation of montpellier broom on the popular Ocean Beach Trail. The trail, once a 4WD track with unofficial rubbish dump sites, has been seriously infested with broom, most likely stemmed from dumped garden waste containing broom seeds.

In 2024, we can happily say, the majority of the trail is looking weed-free!

With the help of Parks and Wildlife, Landcare Tasmania, and the Tasmanian Student Landcare Association, most of the more than 1,000 mature broom plants have been removed.

The remaining work is to follow up at each infestation site and remove the regrowth plants. While being on your hands and knees pulling out hundreds of tiny broom plants may feel like fruitless work, every little broom plant removed gradually exhausts the seedbank. Removing the regrowth plants also frees up more resources for the native plants to regrow in their stead.

Thanks to the Tasmanian Student Landcare Association for coming to help, to World Heritage Cruises for donating lunch, Gordon River Cruises for donating dinner food for the volunteers, Parks and Wildlife Service for assisting us on the ground and with logistics, and to everyone who came to help on the day.

This working bee contributes to Landcare Tasmania's West Coast Project, aiming to restore and extend areas of biodiverse native vegetation on three sites adjacent to a unique coastal reserve in Western Tasmania.

Landcare Tasmania's West Coast Project is supported by generous donations from the Elsie Cameron Foundation.