GLaWAC Crew Taking On Mother of Millions in Gippsland Lakes Coastal Park

GLaWAC is proud to be part of a coalition of organisations fighting the fight against invasive weeds in the Gippsland Lakes Coastal Park. 

Last week members of GLaWAC’s On Country crew went out to Steamer Landing, next to Ocean Grange along 90 Mile Beach, to pull out a truck load of the very invasive weed known as Mother of Millions. 

This is the fourth of these Mother of Millions working bees we’ve held. 

Rolling their sleeves up alongside us were our mates at Parks Victoria (PV), Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA), East Gippsland Catchment Management Authority and the Trust For Nature. 

Sometimes healing Country is a team effort.

This work was also supported by funding from the Gippsland Lakes Coordinating Committee. 

Gippsland Lakes Coastal Park is 1 of 14 parks across Victoria that GLaWAC jointly manages in partnership with government agencies PV and DEECA. 

Mother of Millions causes a lot of damage, particularly in sandy coastal areas. 

It is toxic, and forces out native vegetation. 

“It is called Mother of Millions because of its high seed rate – one plant basically adds millions more,” said GLaWAC On Country Project Officer Liv Bowman. 

“This patch here at Steamer Landing has been struggling with Mother of Millions for about 15 years. It’s likely that it was once planted at Ocean Grange, and has spread from there.” 

Liv said that because the outer barrier dune separating the lakes from the ocean was such a sensitive and ecologically important area, using a herbicide to attack the weed did not align with GLaWAC’s approach to healing Country. 

“Sometimes there’s no substitute for old school labour – pulling the suckers out by the roots!” 

So that’s what we did. 

Not only was it handy to be able to share the workload with our friends at these other organisations, it was also just a great opportunity to build new relationships. 

Thank you to everyone involved!