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General News

8 December, 2020

Frogbit in the firing line

A local contingent of concerned locals has gotten together to get wet and tackle the Amazon Frogbit problem hands-on.

By Phil Brandel

Working together to clear out the Amazon Frogbit from the Atherton Creek
Working together to clear out the Amazon Frogbit from the Atherton Creek

A local contingent of concerned locals has gotten together to get wet and tackle the Amazon Frogbit problem hands-on.

Bill Eaton’s property in Mareeba backs onto the Atherton Creek which has become so clogged with the invasive weed Amazon Frogbit that his water pump was blocked and he decided something needed to be done.

On November 29, friends and family got together to start removing Frogbit from the parts of the creek that back onto Mr Eaton’s property.

“In about 2 hours, seven of us had removed an area about half the size of a tennis court,” he said

“Now you can see fish returning and the water is clear once again.

The following weekend (December 6) 10 people got together and removed even more of the Frogbit from Atherton Creek

The last two weekends led to the idea of a grassroots community who get together to remove Frogbit from their local waterways. Bill is now interested in removing more Frogbit further afield in the Atherton creek and slowly working towards the causeway.

Mr Eaton said “If we can do it anyone can, we have a 5 year old who is helping us out,” he said.

“If we all get together and start pulling out the weed hopefully, it will become more of a maintenance issue rather than a full-blown problem.”

Neighbour Margie Bestmann said it was great to see so many people helping out.

“Now we want to get a list of interested people, so we can let them know the next time we are having a combined working bee in a creek or in one of the local gardens,” she said.

“If we don’t all start working together, all the water pumps will block up and then we will have much bigger and more expensive problems later.

“We are now just looking at gauging community interest.”

The next working bee to remove Frogbit from the Atherton creek is this Sunday, December 13.  To register your interest in helping out with email Margie Bestmann at margiebestmann@gmail.com

 

 

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