Wool producers and Landcare groups in central Victoria have called for an urgent injection of funding to control the invasive weed wheel cactus on Crown land and road reserves.
Wool and crop grower Mark Hall, Buckrabanyule, runs about 700 ewes and said the recent floods had spread wheel cactus seeds down the Loddon and Avoca Rivers.
He said Mount Buckrabanyule, near Wedderburn, was the "heart of the cancer".
"Wheel Cactus is slowly creeping across the countryside, especially up roadways and fence lines, wherever a bird can land, you can see it getting further and further out," Mr Hall said.
"It's just a slow, slow cancer."
The cactus is described as a succulent shrub, which grows up to one or two metres; it produces numerous fruits, with each fruit containing many seeds.
Mr Hall said it was not possible to run sheep in badly infected paddocks.
"The shearers wouldn't shear the sheep for a start, the wool is near enough impossible to handle, so you couldn't put sheep in the paddock.
"The wool would be full of prickles that are impossible to see and they are nasty, if you get them in your hand."
Cropping did seem to keep the weed at bay, but it did thrive along fence and treelines.
"The roadsides, government property and absentee landowners, are the problem - the farmers who live here do their bit and keep their properties pretty clean," he said.
Mr Hall said wheel cactus had spread from an area of Crown Land on Mount Buckrabanyule.
"It's been a problem since the late 1990's, probably before that, but it's really go going in the late 90's and onwards.
'This is the heart of where it originated from and its pushed itself out, over the years, and got further and further afield with birds eating the fruit and excreting the seeds when they land in the trees or on fences."
He said in 2007-08, during the drought, concerted efforts were made to clean up the problem.
"We had some good funding from local government and councils and we had the whole Mount clear," he said.
'"Then the funding stopped, it just needed continued maintenance, but now it's back as bad as it was when we started."
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Wedderburn sheep producer Graham Nesbit said there were programs being put together to eradicate wheel cactus but getting funding was "proving a bit of a challenge.
"We were told we were getting some announcements, but the last time I spoke to the local Landcare groups they had heard nothing," he said.
He said the weed had now spread been Maldon and Buckrabanyule - "the department (Agriculture Victoria) is concerned it will become a supercell and virtually unstoppable," he said.
The horticultural sector could also be affected, as the fruit of the wheel cactus could be a host for fruit flies, he said.
"We have a big enough problem trying to control fruit fly now, without adding that burden of creating a corridor for fruit fly just to move up and down and around as it pleases," he said.
Loddon Plains Landcare Network facilitator William Sanson said he was hopeful the purchase of part of Mount Buckrabanyule by Bush Heritage Australia would lead to a renewed push to rid the area of the weed.
"There have been a lot of poor funding options because it's [control of wheel cactus] not seen as a priority as it's regional and not a high priority in terms of biodiversity," Mr Sanson said.
"There has been a hell of a lot of volunteer time spent on it, but it needs funding from a state level and a big collaborative effort from all the stakeholders.
"There are a lot of stakeholders doing a lot of small things, but no real cohesive funding."
Mr Sanson said wheel cactus had been controlled by Crown land managers "to the best" of their ability.
"But even the government departments are strapped for cash," he said.
There needed to greater community awareness as to how to treat the weed and stop its spread, he said.
The concerns follow a Parliamentary call by South West Coast Liberal MP Roma Britnell for urgent action on an outbreak of pest animals and noxious weeds, on Crown land in the region.
She told parliament for 18 of the past 23 years, Labor had been in power and there had been an outbreak of pest animals and noxious weeds on Crown land.
"Blackberry, boxthorn, ivy, serrated tussock, gorse, Patterson's Curse: you name it, you'll find it on Crown land" Ms Britnell said.
"They are not only destroying our beautiful native environment but now also venturing onto adjoining farmland and ruining fertile pastures"
Ms Britnell called on the Environment minister, Ingrid Stitt, to explain what she was doing to manage and control noxious and pest animals.
"Private landholders are doing their bit, but this government has dropped the ball," Ms Britnell said.
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Victorian Farmers Federation Land Management committee chair Gerald Leach said it had been a long term problem, which was causing "enormous angst" between farmers and Crown land managers.
"There is always an issue, simply because the government doesn't resource that part of Crown land management sufficiently," Mr Leach said.
"We believe when Crown land managers do their annual report, they should not only state what the issues are, in terms of invasive plants and animals, but also what resources are required to manage them effectively".
Both weeds and pest animals were a problem, he said.
"The wet spring and summer has highlighted the weeds issue, because there will be a lot more seeding of invasive plants occurring at the moment," he said.
A government spokesperson said authorities had a strong record of investing in effective invasive species management, across the the state.
"We're targeting invasive species like pigs, foxes and weeds through successful investment in initiatives covering some 90,000 hectares," the spokesman said.
The government said the Glenelg Ark was established in 2005 to support the recovery of native mammal populations impacted by foxes through a broad-scale and continuous fox baiting program across 90,000 hectares of Crown land.
The Glenelg Ark and Glenelg Eden projects were part of the Victorian Government's Weeds and Pests on Public Land (WPPL) program, which invested more than $4 million per year to fund landscape-scale weed and pest projects, focusing on protecting Victoria's biodiversity.
The WPPL program also included the Weeds at the Early Stage of Invasion (WESI) project, a state wide capability building project that supported Victorian land managers to manage weeds that were in the early stage of invasion and a threat to biodiversity.
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Andrew Miller
I'm a general reporter with Stock & Land, with a special interest in irrigation issues. I completed my cadetship, with the Age, in 1980. Over my career, I've worked for ABC radio news (Mt Isa, Qld) and at provincial and suburban newspapers.
I'm a general reporter with Stock & Land, with a special interest in irrigation issues. I completed my cadetship, with the Age, in 1980. Over my career, I've worked for ABC radio news (Mt Isa, Qld) and at provincial and suburban newspapers.
