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Parks and forests > Managing parks and forests > Pest plants and animals

Pest Arrest in Central Queensland

What is Pest Arrest?

From dry desert dunes to remote island refuges, Central Queensland’s biodiversity is worth boasting about. More importantly, it is worth restoring and maintaining for future generations — this is what Pest Arrest is all about.

Pest Arrest is designed to put pressure on pest species and safeguard threatened animals and vegetation communities. With some native species struggling to survive in small isolated populations, the stakes are high and so is our investment.

Through Pest Arrest, we aim to maintain and restore the biodiversity of parks and forests across Central Queensland by:

The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) has a long history of successful pest management and eradication and Pest Arrest will build on these successes and extend our knowledge. Through a diverse suite of specialised projects we are using innovative, effective and long-term pest management methods to protect valuable habitats.

Building on a history of success

Pest management and eradication has long been a priority for QPWS. Pest Arrest builds on our past successes and provides practical learning opportunities for our staff and the wider community alike. Below are some of our past pest management successes — whether eradicating pests on islands or controlling them on the mainland.

Cattle and goats caught in the crosshairs

Feral goats and cattle have often been the focus for our pest management programs. These pests strip native vegetation and erode soils. Under pressure from goats, native plants struggle to regenerate. One of our most successful programs was to eradicate goats and cattle from North Keppel Island, just off the Central Queensland coast. Starting in the 1980s, the program continued for many years. By eliminating goat and cattle grazing, much of the island’s vegetation has flourished. Twenty years on, the area is almost unrecognisable from its previous “moonscape” appearance.

Upstream control halts invasion

Parkinsonia is a major problem, especially in western Queensland catchments. Through intensive spraying, we have successfully eradicated this weed from Elizabeth Springs Conservation Park, in central-western Queensland. We are working with a park neighbour to control infestations further upstream to help prevent the park from being reinfested. It also helps our neighbour by controlling a potentially devastating weed that could significantly reduce the productivity of their land.

Showcase projects

Pest Arrest initially covers ten showcase projects, each with a specific pest management issue to address. Showcase projects are diverse in both their conservation requirements and pest issues, and the initiative is set to grow well into the future.

Albinia

We are trialling stock grazing in Albinia Conservation Park as an innovative tool to help recover brigalow/bonewood communities. As the cattle graze introduced pasture grasses, they reduce fuel loads and the impact of fire on fire-sensitive native vegetation communities. We are developing a remote sensing tool to monitor ecosystem health and weed distribution, and evaluate this resourceful approach to weed management.

Whitsunday Ranges

Conway and Dryander national parks and state forests provide important habitat for Alexandra palm forests, Ristantia rainforests, leaftail geckos and Proserpine rock-wallabies. However, invasive pests are threatening the long-term survival of these species and communities.

Feral pigs eat so many palm seeds and juvenile plants, few plants reach maturity. We are using baiting, trapping and tracking programs to collect data and analyse pest behaviour, leading to more targeted control.

Weeds including sickle pod and rubbervine are equally destructive, significantly threatening the biodiversity of endangered woodlands and ecosystems. Our focused spraying programs and regular inspections will help control the spread of these noxious weeds.

Curtis Island

Curtis Island ’s parks and forests support a breeding population of flatback turtles and endangered yellow chats. These significant conservation values are in peril as pigs, foxes, cattle, horses and goats extensively disturb the fragile coastal ecology.

In cooperation with park neighbours and community groups, we are targeting pests on coastal dunes, marine plains and melaleuca wetlands. Our selective control methods include baiting, trapping, shooting and exclusion as we aim to improve yellow chat habitat and turtle breeding areas.

Diamantina

We are controlling stock on Diamantina National Park as cattle compete for food and trample burrows, quickly compromising bilby and kowari habitat.

Working with neighbours and the local council, we are fencing boundaries, reducing access to artificial waters and responding swiftly to stock incursions. By monitoring the distribution of bilby and kowari populations, we will evaluate habitat changes and project success over time.

Idalia

We are working to restore the natural balance in Idalia National Park — bridled nailtail wallabies and yellow-footed rock-wallabies depend on our success.

Dams, from when Idalia was a sheep property, are allowing large macropods to flourish in numbers which exceed the park’s carrying capacity. Goats also contribute to overgrazing and degrade habitat condition, and predators further threaten endangered wallaby populations.

Pest Arrest in Idalia will relieve these competition and predation pressures. We are eliminating access to dams across the park, encouraging large macropods to revert to natural nomadic behaviour and move on to natural water sources. Our predator control strategy of baiting, trapping and shooting will be targeted to core wallaby habitats.

Kroombit Tops

Kroombit Tops National Park is home to threatened regional ecosystems and the endemic Kroombit tinkerfrog and Kroombit spiny cray. Riparian zones provide precious habitat for these native animals and vegetation communities, but during drought these sites attract intense pig, horse and cattle activity.

Using an innovative sow monitoring program, we aim to understand pig behaviour and group movements, and implement more effective trapping regimes. We are also fencing and mustering to reduce the impact cattle and horses have on these fragile ecosystems.

Mackay Highlands

The Mackay Highlands, including Eungella National Park, Homevale National Park, Homevale Resources Reserve and Crediton State Forest, is an area of outstanding nature conservation value. However, pest animals and plants are taking hold. Pigs are threatening perched palm forest ecosystems and endangered frog populations, and weeds are choking native swamp rat habitat.

With ongoing support from neighbouring landholders and community organisations, our Pest Arrest team will bait and trap pigs, and combat pest plants through spraying, revegetation and quarantine.

Complete pest eradication is not a feasible goal in the Mackay Highlands, but we are confident we will reduce pest impacts to a point where native communities can flourish.

Taunton

Taunton National Park (Scientific) and surrounding properties support the last wild population of endangered bridled nailtail wallabies. Two pest issues currently affect this population — predation and habitat loss.

Dense buffel grass competes with native vegetation, and affects wallaby movement and dispersal. We are trialling techniques to re-create wooded habitat in buffel-dominated sites and promote nailtail fodder species. To minimise predation, we are baiting wild dogs and trialling cat control techniques. To track our progress and direct future efforts, we are rigorously monitoring vegetation condition and nailtail numbers.

Island hitchhikers

Island communities are fragile, isolated and particularly susceptible to pests. The smaller the island, generally the less diverse and less resilient it is to pest threats. However the relative isolation of islands provides us with opportunities to eradicate pests and keep them out!

We are addressing existing island pests according to their relative threats to island values and available cost-effective management techniques. To minimise future pest outbreaks, our Island Hitchhikers project will improve quarantine procedures and our knowledge of these unique ecosystems.

Through quarantine and surveillance we aim to manage pests by:

We aim to share this growing knowledge with other island managers across the Great Barrier Reef.

Capricornia Cays

On Capricornia Cays National Park islands, we are controlling and monitoring pest insects to protect Pisonia grandis forests. In the past, extensive scale damage on Tryon Island devastated pisonia forests. Since then, our ant baiting and revegetation program is helping the pisonia community and associated ecosystems slowly recover. On Wilson Island, we released biological control agents and baited ants to prevent scale devastating the pisonia, and the forest is quickly recovering.

St Bees Island

There is an intricate relationship between introduced and native species on St Bees Island, South Cumberland Islands National Park. We are very carefully managing pests to restore natural ecological processes here.

The island’s koalas rely on blue gums for food but unfortunately goats also find blue gums very attractive. The goats consume blue gum seedlings and significantly reduce the food available to koalas in the future. Goats also consume large quantities of lantana, effectively controlling its spread. Any plan to remove goats from the island must also address this lantana control issue.

We are taking an integrated approach to restoring biodiversity on the island. We will implement a strategic shooting program to remove goats but simultaneously use fire, chemical and biological agents to control lantana.

Publications

Introducing Pest Arrest

Pest Arrest projects

Further information

Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service
  • 61 Yeppoon Road, Parkhurst
  • PO Box 3130, North Rockhampton QLD 4701
  • ph (07) 4936 0511
  • fax (07) 4936 2212

Last updated: 16 August 2007