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Weeds of the Surf Coast

What are environmental weeds?

Environmental weeds are plants that invade native vegetation affecting regeneration and survival of indigenous flora and fauna. A list of weeds of the Surf Coast Shire(PDF, 3MB) , how to treat weeds in your Surf Coast garden (PDF, 140KB) and much more can be found under the additional information page above.

We often have potentially invasive weeds in our gardens which easily, given the right conditions, ‘escape’ into the bush.

An environmental weed in Victoria can be an exotic plant introduced from overseas, an Australian native species from outside Victoria, a Victorian species that has spread outside its pre-European distribution, or in some cases an indigenous plant that has become ‘out of balance’ and has invaded indigenous vegetation communities.

What problems do they cause?

Environmental weeds are considered to be the single greatest threat to native vegetation, they:

alter the landscape character of the Australian environment and cause extinction of local plant species
reduce the available habitat for our local wildlife species
can easily dominate natural vegetation and prevent regeneration of indigenous trees and shrubs
increase fuel loads, and make areas more fire prone
change water cycles and affect erosion
change nutrient levels of the soil

How can I remove them?

Please remove any environmental weeds from your garden to stop them from spreading into natural areas. There are a few different methods for removing weeds depending on the type of weed and growth stage. Visit Agriculture Victoria to learn about different ways to remove different types of weeds.