1970
19 January 1970
Illyrian Thistle and Serrated Tussock worry Weeds Council
The Mid-Western County Council has decided to inform the Noxious Plants Advisory Committee that a new thistle has been discovered in the county district.
The committee is at present reviewing a lot of plants to decide whether they will be declared noxious or not.
The thistle, Illyrian, will be submitted for the committee’s consideration.
During recent inspections by the County Weeds Officer (Mr. W. L. Ryan) it was discovered the thistle was becoming widespread on the Southern Tablelands.
The plant is an erect growing annual with a long central seed stem which is white, woolly, winged and spiney, generally bearing a solitary globular seed heat.
The purple heads are of medium size and very short-stalked; the purple coloured bracts surrounding the flower heads are a special identifying feature of this thistle, the bracts being broad and ending in a short spine.
“This thistle has the ability to spread rapidly,” Mr. Ryan said.
“The sucker growth along the Sydney Road which was sprayed with Brushvert for the Cudgegong Shire appears quite successful”, Mr. Ryan said.
“The volume of work seems to be increasing.
“I feel I will have to devote more time to other noxious weeds this coming winter months as I usually opened the winter months on widespread searches for Serrated Tussock”.
The assistant weeds officer (Mr. C. Howard) in his report to the council said that fresh outbreaks of serrated tussock had been discovered.
This report covers Serrated Tussock inspections since last meeting of council, these last inspections were mainly carried out in the Sofala area. “I found that with the exception of two or three landholders in this area very little eradication work has been carried out, and also new infestations of Serrated Tussock were found on practically all of these properties.
“By far the largest infestation is on Mr. Hilton Tobin’s property, possibly scattered over an area of 200 acres, and although Mr. Tobin has carried out a lot of eradication work, I feel that the Tussock is at exploding point here, and I believe that unless pasture improvement is commenced here this infestation will be a major problem.
“I don’t think that infestations on other properties have increased greatly, most of these infestations are reasonably small and could be eradicated in an hour or two, but landholders still fail to carry out this obligation.
“This noxious weed must be controlled and prosecution could be the only answer.
“Serrated Tussock inspections have been completed for this season, and for an overall picture of the Tussock position, I believe known infestations to be reasonably under control and the real danger areas being Macquarie River at Ullamalla and also Sofala.
“Three new Tussock inspections have been completed for this season, and for an overall picture of the Tussock position, I believe known infestations to be reasonably under control and the real danger areas being Macquarie River at Ullamalla and also Sofala.
“Three new Tussock infestations have recently been located, Allan Ellis, MacDonalds Creek; Mr. Stan Currie, Rylstone and quite a large infestation on Mr. M. Gibson’s property on MacDonalds Creek.
“This infestation was sprayed with Dalapon but seed heads had already separated from the plants”, Mr. Howard said1
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