Recently Pew Charitable Trusts and NT Natural Resource Management ran a forum
on gamba grass on which I was a panel member. According to Garry Cook, a CSIRO
research scientist at the forum, gamba grass is out of control, meaning that
‘Balanda grass’ as Bininj (Aboriginal) rangers call it, may well realise its
potential to colonise the northern third of the Australian continent.
The spread of this 4.5 metre high grass means huge dangerous, fast-moving,
annual fires. A report on the forum in an NT newspaper was entitled, “People
will die” (Sunday Territorian, Nov, 27, 2017). This year temperatures up
to 4.7oC above the long-term maximum, worsened the situation. Firefighters,
despite being backed by waterbombing aircraft and all the other equipment one
could ask for, simply could not halt some fires in our area this year.
According to firefighters most fires have been lit by arsonists tempted by the
sight of great swathes of gamba grass - one such fire came close to taking out
our place in September. Others have been lit by pig-hunters in order to scare
their prey out into the open.
Bininj rangers, firefighters and landholders are doing our best to conserve our
wildlife. Michael and I spend up to six hours a day most days controlling
weeds such as gamba. But it seems inevitable that many savannah/eucalypt
forest species will be lost, including iconic birds such as Gouldian Finch and
Partridge Pigeon. I’m not alone in calling this a national emergency, and
asking for a national response.
In the meantime I ask that birders stay well away from areas with a high
density of gamba.
Thanks
Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow Ph.D.
PO Box 71
Darwin River, NT, Australia 0841
043 8650 835
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