Bushland maintenance

In the last few weeks a number of residents have contacted me regarding weed invasion from Council parks into private property, notably from Outlook Park and Darvall Park. Many years ago when I first became a Councillor there was little or no co-ordinated bush regeneration in Ryde and residents simply put up with neighbouring parkland overgrown with weeds. Then, partly due to my efforts, increased funding was applied to bush regeneration work resulting in a marked improvement to parkland areas.

In many cases this early work was more landscaping than bush regeneration, particularly around the periphery of parks where weed infestation was at its most intense. Weeds were cleared and replaced with indigenous plantings. Residents have become accustomed to the enhanced bushland setting.

However the focus seems to have changed somewhat with more doctrinaire bush regeneration principles now being applied. The focus seems to be on smaller areas with some of the earlier improvements being lost due to lack of maintenance. We are overdue for a discussion of objectives and methods in our bushland parks. The photo shows an orange tree in a resident's yard almost overgrown with invading lantana from the adjoining park.