SUPPORTING THRIVING NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS - WEED MANAGEMENT AT CDU CASUARINA CAMPUS

Students, staff and the general public passing through Casuarina campus may have noticed some big changes with landscaping in the last few months along the large stormwater drain between the sporting ovals and University Drive South. This work is actually important weed removal of the invasive Coffee Bush (Leucaena leucocephala) and revegetation of native trees and shrubs. Coffee Bush easily invades and displaces native vegetation which support the biodiversity that is a treasured part of our Darwin tropical lifestyle.

What is probably less noticeable is the extensive amount of weed control that has occurred in the large area of native vegetation on the western side of campus (the area nearest Casuarina beach), which has mainly been control of highly invasive Gamba Grass (Andropogon gayanus) and Mission Grasses (Cenchrus spp.). Not only do these displace biodiversity, they also create a fire hazard.

The Enviro Collective and the Conservation on Campus groups played a large role in advocating to CDU Facilities Management (FM) to be proactive in the conservation and maintenance of the native vegetation on campus, which is not just for the amazing wildlife that occurs there, but it is also an area used extensively for ecological and botanical research and teaching, as well as community education.

Indeed, this is not the first time staff and students have advocated for the protection of this native vegetation. In 1992, Science Faculty lecturer Dr Richard Noske and his students surveyed the remnant vegetation on behalf of the then Vice Chancellor Malcolm Nairn to demonstrate its value and support its retention. This was in response to the release of the 1992 University Masterplan that proposed to clear it all for a view of the sea! Richard’s report is now an important historic marker showing what plants and animals occurred on campus back then. For example he recorded agile wallabies, which have now disappeared from campus.

To the credit of CDU FM, they not only took on the responsibility of dealing with declared weeds in the native vegetation, they also included all campus landscaped areas and weeds of environmental significance (i.e. species they are not obliged to control). To achieve this, they engaged a consultant to prepare a draft weed management plan and survey the campus in late 2017 and commenced controlling invasive grasses and coffee bush over the Wet Season. To date, 10 declared weed species have been detected during surveys and about half of Casuarina campus has had weed removal or control. The revegetation that has started to take effect near the stormwater drain has been donated by Greening Australia.

In looking to the future we hope that the weed management plan will allow CDU FM to budget for annual monitoring and control as these regenerated areas become an important feature of life, work, and play around campus.

Bryan Baker has been coming to the Casuarina campus for the past 25 years. He learnt a great deal about Top End flora using the native vegetation on campus as an undergraduate student, and has spent the past 20 years working in natural resource management in the NT. In this time he has seen a lot of threats to biodiversity emerge and hopes that CDU can be a responsible environmental steward.