VIDEO: Cactus busting in Alice Springs

Did you know that Coral Cactus is a tricky plant to remove because every little vegetative part has the potential to regrow into a new plant?

This is what makes the efforts of Alice Springs Landcare so essential, as they have been monitoring and removing this declared weed around town for around the last five years.

The plant is carefully removed, usually with tongs, and placed into buckets.

The weed is then transported, ideally in an enclosed container, to the local tip where it is buried in landfill, not placed in the regular green waste where it would keep growing.

It is easy for the plant to be distributed by macropods (wallabies and euros), as the cactus easily attaches to their tails and falls off along the way.

In a recent field day, around ten Alice Springs Landcare volunteers worked together to remove nearly 300kgs of the invasive Coral Cactus (now Class A and Class C weeds). To find out more about how weeds are placed into classes based on the risk of harm they could cause and how difficult they are to control, click here.

The field day was part of a larger project to control this weed in the Alice Springs region (supported by Territory Natural Resource Management, through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Programme).

To contribute to the efforts of Alice Springs Landcare, contact them directly here.

Grade 9 students at St Philip's College, through their community service program, are assisting NT Parks & Wildlife rangers at the Telegraph Station to locate and remove cacti.

Have a look in and around your property, especially for Prickly Pear and Rope Cactus varieties.

All Prickly Pear, Rope Cactus and Coral Cactus are now declared weeds in NT (to be eradicated and not to be introduced).

Report all cacti sightings to NT Government Weed Management Branch (Alice Springs – 08 8951 9210).