CLEAR Lake residents say they are fed up with lack of action from government bodies around the town’s growing fairy grass problem.
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In November 2018, Parks Victoria did an assessment of the problem and slashed fairy grass at Clear Lake. The grass grows inside the lake and around the Clear Lake Reserve.
Parks Victoria describes fairy grass as “a native blown grass which colonises in damp, bare areas and germinates as soon as temperature and moisture levels are suitable”.
Clear Lake is home to about 40 residents and the town has faced problems with fairy grass since the late 1980s.
Resident Trevor Watson has lived in the town his whole life and said the problem subsided when the grass was burned off.
“The first year it got really bad, there was still water in the lake and the grass all around the tree line. We burned around the trees. Then the next year the lake dried up and we burned inside it,” he said.
Parks Victoria, the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, the Country Fire Authority and Clear Lake residents co-ordinated the burn-off.
“From then on we didn’t have a problem with the fairy grass until 2015 when it came back. When Parks Victoria slash it, all it’s doing is putting the seeds back on the floor of the lake,” Mr Watson said.
Residents Jen and Craig Giggins said their house was inundated with fairy grass a few weeks ago, and most residents had experienced the same situation.
Mrs Giggins said the grass was “more than eight feet high” in some areas.
“It’s heartbreaking. It gets into all the sheds, the chicken coops, up the fences, over the air-conditioners. It comes into your house and is impossible to weed out of the garden,” Mrs Giggins said.
“We only just finished cleaning up our place from the last time it happened and then six weeks later it was back.”
Mr Giggins said Parks Victoria had not contacted residents about conducting further assessments since its November assessment.
“Parks Victoria keep telling us that they are monitoring the situation. We have all contracted Parks Victoria individually about different problems,” Mr Giggins said.
“Every year the fairy grass season rolls around and they just seem to ignore it. We keep getting told it’s a huge fire risk, but nothing gets done.”
In 2002 a build up of fairy grass caught on fire at Dock Lake Reserve, which threatened people who were at the reserve playing sport. About 225 hectares of land and the Taylors Lake Football Clubrooms were destroyed.
Clear Lake farmer Lockie Wilson said he was concerned about the fire danger risk of fairy grass at his property.
“On the most recent Total Fire Ban day (on January 29) when it was more than 40 degrees and there were 50km/h winds blowing straight out the lake, if a pilot light or powerline had sparked then you have no break between the grass and the house. The grass is very combustible and can move around so easily,” he said.
“There are paddocks around here that are covered in fairy grass. I don’t know how we’re going to go about sowing in them. It was getting into the headers last time and were overheating.”
Parks Victoria area chief ranger Zoe Wilkinson said fairy grass had appeared at many lakes and waterway across the Wimmera this summer.
“This summer, Parks Victoria has been in regular contact with some of the people living near Clear Lake about the impact of fairy grass blowing from the lake-bed and onto their properties,” she said.
“It is a difficult grass to manage, as treatments such as herbicide and burning have been found to result in an increased density of the fairy grass in later seasons because the treatment also removes competing vegetation.
“Local evidence suggests the best treatment is to allow the natural process of vegetation succession with minimal human intervention. Importantly, Clear Lake also contains registered Aboriginal heritage sites which must be protected when considering any treatment of this native grass.”
She said Forest Fire Management Wimmera would assess the Clear Lake fairy grass as part of its fuel management strategy for 2019–20, alongside the CFA and Parks Victoria.
“These will include the local community in these conversations,” she said.
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