Ron Hacker OAM is a Fellow of Australian Rangeland Society. Email contact: ron.hacker@crt.net.au
________________________________________________________________
Having read the Buffel Grass Special Issue of the RMN (25/2), in which opinion in favour of listing the species (or species group) as a WoNS greatly outweighed the one (well informed) contrary view, I find myself in agreement with the listing proposal. As a student (many years ago) I was taught that a weed is simply ‘a plant out of place’. This definition has served me well ever since and is, I think, an appropriate lens through to view the buffel grass dilemma. There is no doubt that this species (or group of species) has contributed significantly to the productivity of the northern livestock industry, and to the stabilisation of eroded landscapes. I personally have vivid recollections of the role played by Birdwood grass (Cenchrus setiger) in the regeneration of extremely degraded portions of the Ord River Catchment in WA. I am also well aware of the substantial efforts devoted by both State and Commonwealth government officers to the introduction, evaluation, breeding, and promotion of buffel grass in the context of livestock production. Any listing that required landholders to now remove the species from pastoral land, even if that were possible, would be a travesty. However, I also accept that outside pastoral land, buffel grass can pose serious ecological problems in ways that have been well canvassed in the various contributions to the RMN special issue. If listing as a WoNS does not impose obligations on pastoral landholders but provides a means of marshalling resources to address the impacts of buffel in situations where it is ‘out of place’ then I can only support it. I appreciate the possibility that buffel grass may eventually occupy all of the niches to which it is suited regardless of any management efforts – a prospect made all the more likely by its characteristic apomixis which, far from being the evolutionary dead end it was once thought to be is, in fact, an evolutionary super-highway by which any favourable mutation is immediately fixed. Nevertheless, failure to address those situations in which the species is clearly ‘out of place’, and in which there is the prospect of control or exclusion, would be irresponsible. To the extent that a WoNS listing may provide the basis for a well -resourced situational response, guided by local consultation, it is to be supported.
Submitted: 27 August 2025