Total Effort

The chart shows the total effort for each of the last six seasons, divided into the time spent in the Reserve, Bottom Pinnacle and North Kama paddocks.

Between 1 July and 31 March the total amount of effort spent on weed control was 657 hours, 98% within the Reserve. The small amount of effort outside the Reserve was aimed at creating buffer zones around the boundaries.

This was 16% less than last season and 2% less than the average for the previous 13 seasons of monitoring. If Weetangera paddock is excluded from calculations (as explained below *) effort for the rest of the Reserve was 32% less than the average for the previous 13 seasons.

This decrease relative to previous seasons is attributed to a combination of an initial 4 months of unseasonably dry conditions with reduced weed targets followed by 2 months of unseasonably wet conditions limiting weed control opportunities, particularly for spraying.

* Note that data for Weetangera paddock is separated from the rest of the Reserve in this and some of the charts below because of the disproportionate amount of effort there in recent seasons with a large proportion of that effort being very intensive, associated with preparing and maintaining planting sites.

Total effort in different management areas (paddocks)

The chart shows the total effort for each paddock, divided into the time spent using different weed control methods.

This chart shows the effort for the season to date in each paddock (see paddock map), separated into the time spent applying each weed control method.

It can be seen that Weetangera paddock received the greatest effort, followed by Kama Link, Dam, Southern, Eastern and Central, with less than 30 h effort in each of the other paddocks.

The chart shows the total effort per ha for each paddock.

The areas of the paddocks differ considerably, so a better way to compare weeding effort (and to some extent weed prevalence) between paddocks is to express the effort as hours per hectare.

On this basis, Weetangera paddock retains the top spots, Eastern jumps to second and the others remain in the same order apart from Hawker moving ahead of Central.

Total effort for different weed types

This chart shows the effort for each weed type across all paddocks for the season to date.

... for the season to date

This chart shows the total effort for the season so far for each weed type.

Most effort (243 h; 37% of total) was spent in this period on the group of uncategorised low to medium risk broadleaf weeds* largely in Weetangera paddock. This was followed at a distance by St. John's Wort (142 h, 22%), Paterson's curse (65 h, 10%) largely in Kama Link paddock, miscellaneous Woody weeds excluding Briars and Blackberries (50 h, 8%) and Thistles other than Saffron thistles (48 h, 7%). All other weeds combined accounted for 16% of effort.

*this incudes Hoary Mustard, Prickly Lettuce, Nightshade, Fleabane, Tragopogon, Plantain, Flatweeds, Paddymelon and Sorrel.

This chart shows the effort for each weed type for each month of the season to date.

... for each month so far this season

The chart to the left summarises the effort for the different weed types for each month so far this season, showing how the effort on different weed types changed from month to month.

Effort on miscellaneous Broadleaf weeds and Paterson's curse was comparatively uniformly distributed across the months while that on St. John's Wort ramped up in December and January as spraying season got underway.

It is also worth comparing this chart with those for all previous seasons.

... also

• comparison across the last 13 seasons for the five weed types receiving the most effort so far this season in the Reserve (from which it can be seen that February 2024 was our busiest month for several years
  
  
• season to date weed type comparisons compare the total effort for each weed type for the season to date for the last five seasons, with comments on season to season changes

Effort for different weed types in each management area (paddock)

... via a hover map

Click the image on the left to open a full-size map in a new window.

Hover your mouse pointer over any paddock to see the effort that has been spent in that paddock in the season to date on each weed type.

This shows, for each weed type, the effort that has been spent in the season to date in each paddock.

Effort is expressed per hectare to take into account the different paddock sizes. This allows one to judge relative levels of infestation by each weed type in different paddocks.

The data can be also viewed as hours of effort in each paddock for each weed type.