Nanna Anne with friend Liz and the three Little Nannas are caretaking the 539 hectare Buckrabanyule Reserve 270km north west of Melbourne. One of their jobs is to help eliminate the widespread and invasive wheel cactus infestation impacting much of the property.
Nanna Anne reports:
The traditional custodians are the Dja Dja Wurrung people and we are visitors to their country. Bush Heritage purchased Mount Buckrabanyule Reserve in 2020. The reserve is now managed equally by both partners following the Wurreka Galkangu Landscape plan. This reserve is one of a number of Bush Heritage reserves in this area.
“Another of the reasons Bush Heritage bought in to Buckrabanyule was to demonstrate to the community that we are serious about landscape weed control and wanted to take a lead in dealing with the wheel cactus infestation,” said Dan Nugent, Reserve Manager.
Liz and I (Eartha, Nola and Michelle) are living in a four-bedroom (or two bedroom, a lounge and a study) house. The house is off grid and has all the mod cons we need. It is quiet here, so quiet – no neighbours within sight and only the odd car drives up the lane.
Our first job as caretakers was to give the house a good once over to freshen it up. Apparently, we are ‘the guinea pigs’ as there haven’t been caretakers here for a while. Everything works and we feel we are in relative luxury.
The property has an infestation of wheel cactus (Opuntia robusta). Contractors are brought in for three months in spring to do major eradication and the results of this are obvious as there are huge swathes of dead cactus. Each apple sized fruit holds up to 500 seeds and it is dispersed by birds and water flow. The seed can be viable for 30 years! So yes, this is a huge job to heal this bit of very injured land.
Our second job is to clear the cactus from around the house. We make a plan and then walk up and down digging out and collecting any babies that are hiding in the grass (and they are good at it). We take them back to our fire pit, make a pyre and burn them to ash.
The fire helps us stay warm in the evenings, too. Not sure of our carbon footprint, but they need to be destroyed as each ‘wheel’, if left on the ground, can grow roots and bounce back to life. The only alternative is to bury them deeply, and as we don’t have a digger…
Next we move on to the HUGE ones lining the creek. These need either stabbing or drilling and a careful squirt of poison (Liz and I did our ChemCert training in May). They will take two weeks to look sick and six months to die.
The last 2 weeks will be spent planting trees and working with an ecologist on near by Bush Heritage reserves. It is incredibly rewarding work – feels like I’m doing something to heal this
broken place.
Bush Heritage has 52 reserves all over Australia that they protect. They “buy, restore and
protect natural landscapes.” See the Bush Heritage website for more information, how to donate or volunteer.