Boxing glove control

My name is Matthew Kennedy
I’m with Local Land Services
the Good Neighbours Program
we’re currently in Tibooburra looking at boxing glove cactus
the Good Neighbours Program is
a program where we look to collaborate
or encourage collaboration between
different forms of landholders
so government landholders with private landholders
or it can be government landholders
with government landholders
we do that because we can see a need that
for us to be able to effectively deal with
a number of biosecurity issues
we need collaboration
we need different landholder groups
on both sides of the fence
with the idea of a cross-tenure basis
to work towards the objective that we’re after
My name’s Jack Anderson
I live out at Mount Stuart Station, manage it there
I’ve lived at Mount Stuart now for nine years
so it’s me out there, my wife Mercedes
and little man, Alfie
so, a family run property
we run mainly merinos here and a few cows
so Tibooburra is in the far northwest corner of New South Wales
just near Cameron’s Corner
three and a half hours north of Broken Hill
we’re only fifty kilometres off the Queensland border
Sturt National Park runs all along our northern boundary
so we’ve got a fair bit of boundary with the park
we’re currently on a private landholder’s property
and there’s a fairly serious infestation of
boxing glove cactus here
which is devastating for the landholder because of the
impacts that it has on production and so forth
and this site is right next to a creek site
and a flood zone, and what happens is
it keeps on pushing this cactus further and further
along the creek
while it’s devastating for our landholder
also what it’s going to do is it’s going to continue
to make it’s way to a national park
now that national park is a Ramsar site
it’s a site that has been designated of international importance
and if we were to get the cactus in there
it would be exceptionally bad
my name is Dan Hough, I’m the team leader field operations
for West Darling area of New South Wales
National Parks and Wildlife Service
Mount Stuart wraps around the bottom half of Tibooburra
and Sturt National Park wraps around the top half
the boxing glove cactus
the original infestation was in the township of Tibooburra
but also out at the tip
but it’s since spread north onto the park, onto Sturt
there’s also the boxing glove cactus up at
the creek there, which flows into Caryapundy Swamp
so it’s a threat to the Ramsar wetlands
right across the state we’ve got lots of different tenure
across New South Wales
but pest animals and pest weeds just don’t recognise boundaries
where we are now, this landholder, the infestation
that they’re having to deal with
there’s a lot involved here for them
and so that’s where we’re coming in
to be a partner with them
and collaborating with people like National Parks
in this particular area
so it’s not just the destruction of the cactus
and to get in control of that
we’re also wanting to foster relationships
where both landholders and public land managers
have a relationship that is
really connected, so that in the future
if this type of stuff happens again
that they’re able to work together
if we can work with LLS and with our neighbours
with the boxing glove cactus as an example
to get a good control over it
that’s the best outcome, eradication is
difficult and there’s always got to be ongoing monitoring
but to get a broader nil tenure approach to it
obviously better control
we can impact on that population
that’ll be the best outcome
this Good Neighbours Program
on your own it’s a big job, but it’s doable
with all of us joining together
the more we do now, we won’t have to
Alfie won’t have to worry about doing it later on
so his legacy will be chasing sheep, not chasing cactus
so if we were to come back in ten years’ time
and have a look at the project that we’ve been a part of here
success is not just the defeat of the cactus
success is also that collaboration, that relationship
between the different landholders
if we can see that, then Good Neighbours has done their job.