Top End weeds and their effect on birds: flights

Good morning all

It’s been a rather dry but stormy February here in the Top End. One lightning strike took out a large tree, our internet connections. It sent shards of trunk up over two metres in length flying for over forty metres in all directions, some landing on our verandah.

Our outdoor activity at this time of year mainly consists of weeding. It’s a battle to preserve a variety of native grasses and herbs for resident birds such as Partridge Pigeon from a variety of interlopers capable at transforming our floristically diverse property to a monoculture. These weeds were mainly brought in as cattle pasture or as contaminants in cattle pasture.

The cattle industry has fought tooth and nail to prevent some of these grasses being declared weeds. However some of these weeds are now causing issues for graziers. According to a real estate agent properties with gamba grass infestations are not selling. Secondly, and probably a bigger issue for the cattle industry, is another weed, a Rats-tail grass (Sporobolus jaquemontia). The silica in this grass causes a condition called smooth-mouth among stock. Cattle suffering from this condiition have teeth so worn down they cannot feed properly.

Rats-tail grass, according to one grazier, is more difficult than other weeds to control, one reason being that has a sticky seed and is easily spread both by vehicles and animals moving through it. Secondly, birds such as Magpie-geese favour the seed and move through the grass stripping the heads as they go. So some granivores may benefit from it, although probably not Partridge Pigeons. They feed in a similar mannter, but only on small grass taxa, such as Eragrostris spp.

Lastly, can anyone tell me whether it would be better for a US visitor travelling to Singapore then on to Bali and finally Darwin to book and pay for tickets from Australia or the USA?

Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow
PO Box 71
Darwin River, NT, Australia 0841
043 8650 835

PhD candidate, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW.

Founding Member: Ecotourism Australia
Nominated by Earthfoot for Condé Nast’s International Ecotourism Award, 2004.

With every introduction of a plant or animal that goes feral this continent becomes a little less unique, a little less Australian.