Traditional Owners are in Canberra today calling on the Australian Government to take urgent national action on buffel grass – one of the most destructive invasive weeds transforming Australia’s arid landscapes.
The delegation is meeting with representatives from government, crossbench senators, including Senator David Pocock and Greens representatives, to press the case for buffel grass to be recognised as a Weed of National Significance (WONs), with a federal decision on the nomination expected later this month.
‘Buffel grass is changing the nature of our deserts. It’s turning open Country into dense fuel, and when it burns, it burns hotter, faster and more often than these landscapes have ever known. Those fires don’t just pass through – they destroy ancient desert oaks and mulga that have stood on this Country for centuries,’ Wiradjuri man and Invasive Species Council Indigenous Ambassador Richard Swain said.
‘Yesterday the federal government made a decision to delay the buffel grass Key Threatening Process Assessment, which is deeply disappointing – and why this WONs nomination is even more critical to unlock the national coordination and resources needed right now.
‘For Aboriginal people, this is not just about a weed. It’s about what happens to Country when the balance is broken. The plants, the animals, the old trees – they all hold stories and knowledge. When buffel takes over and fires intensify, we risk losing more than just species; we also risk losing parts of our living culture.
‘This is not just a Northern Territory problem. Buffel grass has spread across Central Australia and continues pushing into Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland.
‘Around the world, buffel grass is recognised as one of the most damaging invasive plants in drylands. Yet Australia still doesn’t have a coordinated national response. Caring for Country requires leadership, and this is a moment for the nation to step up.’
Eastern Arrernte Traditional Owner Camille Dobson said:
‘The risk posed by buffel to remote Aboriginal communities is massive, particularly the fire risk, lives and infrastructure.
‘Remote communities rely on the regional councils to keep communities safe but often the workers are not trained in firefighting, nor do they have access to all the equipment needed to keep communities safe.
‘The Aboriginal rangers are often put up as the solution to buffel management, but with tenuous funding and often threatened by funding cuts, the community ranger programs are overstretched and under-resourced; they alone can’t be responsible for a problem they did not create.
‘We all need to work together to find a solution to this problem and getting buffel declared a weed of national significance is a step in the right direction.’
A senior man from Watarru, Frank Young said:
‘We now have a buffel desert – nothing else lives there and I don’t see my wild flowers anymore.’
Senior Man from Eastern APY, Donald Fraser said:
‘Buffel is a curse that destroys the land and as a cattleman I’d rather see the sweet grasses that were there before buffel spread across the desert.’
Background:
- For Traditional Owners, buffel grass – known as tjanpi kura (bad grass) and mamu tjanpi (devil grass) – is rapidly transforming our deserts into dangerous monocultures that burn hotter, faster, and more frequently.
- It is aggressively spreading through songlines and sacred sites, choking waterways, and leaving dust where there was once diverse native life.
- In Central Australia, buffel grass now covers hundreds of kilometres of Country. It continues to spread, threatening native ecosystems across Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, and Queensland.
- Buffel grass was first proposed as a Key Threatening Process more than a decade ago. However, no substantive action followed – and in that time, the invasive weed has continued to spread unchecked across the continent.
- The delegation is calling for the government to:
- Recognise buffel as a Weed of National Significance
- List buffel as a standalone Key Threatening Process under national law
- Fund a national buffel coordinator and develop an action plan, including research, regional planning, and on-ground control to restore and protect arid ecosystems and reduce the risks of fire to communities and infrastructure.
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