The buffel grass harvest grows legs

Soon after we began our slashing and mowing , it became apparrent what the effects of buffel grass and fire can be like. This large river red gum ( the largest one within sight) was totally burned out and showing no signs of life. The loss of large red gums like these will eventually lead to a loss of habitat for the many tree hollow dependent animals in the town. These big old trees are also regarded as sacred by traditional owners.

After mucking a round with the brand new whipper snippers, we got to work cutting down the grass. It was suprisingly tough and the nylon line was wearing out quite fast .

There wa salso a lot of sticks and bark from the red gums mixed in which meant that the mixture that was raked up was pretty coarse.very soon after we had begun we were thinking that metal baldes would actually do a better job. the other thing about the whippper snippers is that they spread the grass all over the place - whereas the metal blades cut it and it generally stays where it was cut.

One of our crew had an articulating metal blade - which is better than a static metal blade in the event that you hot a rock or wood during your work.
We ended up with a trailer and a couple of ute laods of muclch but our tips for the next harvest were:

-metal blades

-start in an area with thicker buffel grass (the grass is quicker to gather and it is more likely to be a fire risk)