Great Lakes Council has scooped its second weed management award in as many months, this time for weed control in the Ramsar listed wetland of Myall Lakes.

The award, for the ongoing project “Cabomba Control for the Protection of the Ramsar Listed Myall Lakes” was presented to Council’s Noxious and Environmental Weeds Coordinator, Mr Terry Inkson, at the Local Government NSW “Excellence in the Environment” awards in Sydney this week.
Mr Inkson said, “This is a great achievement that has been a long time coming and it was a pleasure to accept the award on behalf of the team that have worked tirelessly on the project over the past few years.”
Cabomba (Cabomba caroliniana) is an aquatic plant native to South America. It is fully submerged except for occasional floating leaves and emergent flowers.
Cabomba has the potential to cause significant impacts to water bodies. It can form dense underwater monocultures that affect the biodiversity and function of wetland and riparian ecosystems, water quality, water storage and distribution, infrastructure, and impact on recreation and amenity values.
The Myall Lakes wetlands are the largest fresh – brackish water system on the NSW coast covering approximately 10,000 hectares. They are in a near-natural condition and support a rich biodiversity of plants and animals, including threatened flora and fauna and 22 migratory bird species.
“Limited effective management options were available for the treatment of cabomba in Australia, especially in the high rainfall environment of the mid north coast of NSW. Since the suspension of the registration of Rubbervine Spray™ in 2004, there were no registered herbicides available for the treatment of cabomba in Australia,” said Mr Inkson.
“This project was instrumental in utilising the newly approved herbicide Shark® for use on this Weed of National Significance.”
The project has been extremely successful, with a huge reduction of Cabomba in the 12 treated ponds. In fact no Cabomba has been detected in any of the treatment areas for varying timeframes of between 20 and 40 months.
Great Lakes Council was one of 34 finalists of 80 nominations from 50 Local Government areas. All finalists were either awarded as winners or highly commended for the respective division and categories.
This award follows the announcement in October when Mr Inkson won the Stephenson Award which recognises an “outstanding contribution to planning and coordinating weed management programs in NSW” at the NSW Weed Conference.