One of the most insidious ‘invaders’ trying to change our Alpine areas (for the worse) is the generically named ‘Hawkweed’. In fact there are three species in this family of European daisies, spreading around on the Victorian Bogong High Plains and also in Kosciuszko NP in NSW.  All three have hairy rosette leaves, bright daisy-like flowers over summer (two bright yellow (King Devil and Mouse Ear) and one orange (Orange!), and are the ‘perfect’ weed, spreading by releasing thousands of seeds into the winds and also creeping along with above-ground stolons (horizontal stems) like strawberries, and springing up with new plants from sub-surface roots. It also spreads chemicals that inhibit native competitors. If any, or all of these pests escape from the High Plains to settled areas we will have a major weed problem in farming and grazing lands, as has happened in New Zealand and North America.

The following is a report from Mick Webster.

In the past there was a major volunteer  effort to find and eliminate this pest – Parks Victoria (PV) has run week-long residential programs from Falls Creek for volunteers to conduct line-searches of pre-planned hectare grids, and this has been a major source of new discoveries – it was volunteers who by sheer chance discovered we had the third species here, Mouse-ear Hawkweed, at Pretty Valley, in 2011.

Mouse Ear Hawkweed

During Covid, and with continuing State government cuts to ParksVic budgets, the volunteer program has become more of a token effort, with people doing one or two days searching every year, and no accommodation offered  at Falls Creek. A contract crew of professionals has still been employed over summer, but they were mainly checking sites where Hawkweed were known to have been in the past (seeds can persist for many years in the soil).

Last year a group of experienced searcher volunteers were determined to change this situation, and we, with support of local PV staff, developed a program to test the interest in getting week-long residential programs up and running again. For me, as a North-East local, I was struck by the thought that there might be a reservoir of possible weed-searchers in local bushwalking and ecological  groups to come to the High plains to spend a day or a weekend searching in a defined area, without needing accommodation.

Found it!

And now it’s happened this year! After many discussions and much planning and effort, plans put up and abandoned, by the time we have finished searching this season we will have run two week-long programs, and  we will have line-searched 15 hectare grids where Hawkweed was predicted to be (by Agriculture Victoria’s computer program). And over twenty newbie volunteer Hawkweed-hunters will have been inducted into the fold!

The best news this year so far is that volunteers have discovered two new infestations of Mouse-ear Hawkweed  at Pretty Valley, in previously unknown locations! (These were reported to PV and the contractors for immediate destruction). And we have hopes that the recent discovery of Orange Hawkweed at Buckety Plain (10km distant from any other find) will be proved to be a complete anomaly.

Orange Hawkweed

We are now planning to expand this program to offer more week-long residential programs in 2026, with free accommodation. And we will continue to offer day programs for North-East/Riverina locals. It’s a great opportunity to get up somewhere much cooler over summer, do a (rather slow) bushwalk in beautiful Alpine countryside, accomplish something very valuable for the environment, and meet lots of like-minded people from all over!

A map of plants found last summer

For more information and to indicate your possible interest in the program here are some links

.  More on identifying the weed – https://agriculture.vic.gov.au/biosecurity/weeds/state-prohibited-weeds/hawkweed

.  check Parks Victoria’s website Parkconnect for any Hawkweed programs being offered

.  contact Andrew Hunter-Graham for week-long programs  ( andhuntgrah@hotmail.com )

.  contact me for local North-East programs  (websterm@netc.net.au)

.  Join ‘Hawkweed Hunters of the High Plains’ on Facebook

.  and keep your eyes open when walking in the Alps and report any Hawkweed you think you come across! (please don’t try to remove it yourself)

 

Mick Webster