Weed Hygiene Survey Results

The Victorian Serrated Tussock Working Party recently engaged ORIMA Research to conduct a Weed Hygiene Survey in April 2020, which received responses from 41 interested parties.

The survey highlighted the complex collaborative networks involved in weed management, indicating strong working relationships between most established entities. Relationships with Commonwealth/State government agencies and private individuals were seen as less effective.

Nine in ten landholders had a weed management strategy in place, with 87% of these indicating that their strategy is mostly followed. Respondents were generally confident in establishing their weed management strategy and response plans, despite limited awareness and usage of the wide variety of weed management information resources available to them. Instead, around half of landholders tended to encounter difficulties operationalizing their plans, particularly in relation to mapping, monitoring and actively responding to weed outbreaks.

Three-quarters of respondents employed contractors to work on their land, with a range of control mechanisms in place (formal and informal) relating to weed hygiene. However, only 20% audit their contractors annually or more often, with 39% reporting they have never conducted an audit. Audits conducted in the past 12 months found 69% compliance, with the remaining audits finding only minor infractions.

The VSTWP will use these results to produce a booklet for best practice weed hygiene and contract management for all stakeholders and contractors in the field. Stay tuned!