There needs to be a “war on weeds” as they are negatively impacting our natural ecosystems and the asparagus fern is an especially huge threat spreading rapidly through the coastal dunes, according to Coolum and North Shore Coast Care’s Tony Gibson. This weed smothers native flora and reduces habitat for fauna Tony says of the fern that has escaped gardens, planter boxes and pots to become a category “3” restricted invasive plant under the Biosecurity Act, 2014.
Councils and bushcare groups have had some success eradicating it using manual hand tools and undesirable chemical sprays but now a Peregian Beach local has invented a tool to speed up the process.
Ron Gooch was up to his armpits in asparagus fern which led him to develop the Asparagus Assassin (or AA for short) after a number of prototypes.
The simple, easy to use tool, is now helping community volunteers working in the Peregian Beach Community Associations Weeding precinct but it didn’t stop there.
Ron saw the opportunity for the tool to be used across Australia to address the asparagus menace and sought support more widely from Noosa Council and other bushcare groups. Anecdotal evidence indicates that asparagus can be removed three times faster using the tool, which is a great productivity gain.
Excited by the opportunity to undertake a project to expand the usage of the AA Tony sought sponsorship from Bendigo Bank and was awarded $3000 to purchase more AAs tools.
Coolum and North Shore Coast Care has commenced a “Roving Weeders” program working with other groups in the Noosa Shire commencing with the Marcus Beach Bushcare Association. On Wednesday 21 February the Asparagus Assassin Project was launched.
