Toxic weed blunder forces contractor to unearth dumped soil

The contractor, who was employed to clear a roadside drain and grade the shoulder of a road for East Gippsland Shire Council at Clifton Creek, unknowingly trucked material which potentially contained fireweed.

The daisy weed is native to southern Africa, and according to the CSIRO has become a significant pest plant across eastern Australia.

The council said it was unaware of the "disturbance" of fireweed until the matter was raised with council bureaucrats by the local Landcare group.

CSIRO say the plant has dense seed soil banks and wind-dispersed seeds, meaning it is capable of rapid spread over large distances.

Clifton Creek Community Landcare Group president Ian Brownrigg said cattle and horses faced the greatest risk of being poisoned by the weed.

"There's only one outbreak of fireweed which we're aware of in Clifton Creek, and then there's areas of it around Genoa and Mallacoota which have been managed by the community as well," Mr Brownrigg said.

"The fireweed at Clifton Creek is on one private property and on both sides of Deptford Road which is where the shire graded the shoulders of the road, before they removed the material they cleaned from the gutters."

Mr Brownrigg said the material was trucked to the local speedway five kilometres away before he brought the matter to council's attention.

He claims a portion of the material was then re-loaded onto trucks and transported another 15 kilometres to the contractor's yard in Bairnsdale, while council said most of the material was returned to the original Deptford Road site.

"I own and operate a tip truck and I know what blows out of them when you drive down the road," he said.

"For over three years, we've worked with the landholder who has spent a lot of money on pasture renovation and fertiliser and hand removal of the plants and us volunteers have regularly removed the plants from the roadside as they emerge."

Farmer Kevin Cordery, who owns the private property in question, said he had worked diligently to remove fireweed from his land since it was first brought to his attention by Landcare members three years ago.

"We bought the property about three and a half years ago and in that time we've removed more than 3750 plants, including 250 this year after 2000 plants the year before," he said.

"I think I'm getting on top of it and with the help of the Landcare group, they've also removed about 250 plants along the road."

East Gippsland Shire Council said it had only received $70,000 in state government funding this year to manage roadside weeds across almost 3000 kilometres of roadside.

"This funding doesn't go anywhere near the funding required to manage invasive and noxious species," a council spokesperson said.

"In addition, the contractor will be required to add detail about biosecurity measures undertaken for the particular weed species.

"It is considered these mechanisms will prevent any repeat occurrence."

The council said machinery and equipment were washed down on site and sprayed with bleach.