Guy Barnett,Minister for Primary Industries and Water
The Tasmanian Liberal Government is partnering with landholders to invest $3.55 million to support 14 landscape-scale projects to tackle invasive weeds in the latest round of the Weeds Action Fund.
Under the Targeted Large Grants round, the fund will provide $1.5 million to large-scale projects over three years with landholders to contribute the remainder.
The Tasmanian Weeds Action Fund is a $5 million Tasmanian Government initiative funded for five years from 2018-19 which sees the Government investing with farmers and community organisations to tackle weeds impacting valuable agricultural and environmental assets.
Through this round, there has been an impressive co-investment of around 57 per cent which will see extensive on-ground weed works across the Coal River Valley, Flinders Island, Ridgley through to Waratah and Sorrel down to the Tasman.
One fund recipient, the Coal River Products Association, will tackle several target weeds such as serrated tussock, Chilean needlegrass and gorse in over 67 private and public sites across the valley. This will treat over 2090 hectares within a 15,000 hectare area from Craigbourne Dam to Cambridge and the Southern Midlands and Clarence municipalities.
Of the 14 projects approved under the Targeted Large Grants round, six were from Southern Tasmania, three from Flinders Island, four in Northern Tasmania and one in the North-West. Another grant round for multi-year, landscape-scale projects for weed containment will be released in late 2021.
A list of successful projects is available from the DPIPWE website: https://dpipwe.tas.gov.au/invasive-species/weeds/tasmanian-weeds-action-fund.
