What's Happening in Cannington, WA…

Welshpool and other areas around Canning are saying goodbye to an unwelcomed South American native; a weed commonly known as ‘floating pennywort’, which is clogging up waterways and drains in Perth’s southeast.

The weed is able to double in size in three to seven days, quickly growing across a water way. The result is low oxygen levels in the water, and it blocks out sunlight. It also prevents waterways from being used for recreational activities like canoeing and kayaking. It is problematic for native plants and animals and potentially dangerous if people mistake it for a solid surface and fall into the river.

More formally known as ‘hydrocotyle’ in the 1990’s, when the weed was at the height of its growth along the Canning river, a report by Swan River Trust estimated it weighed 2,000 tonnes and cost $1.2m to eradicate. Funding from the State Natural Resource Management programme aims to stop the weed from getting that type of stranglehold again. The target is to remove the weed from Canning River within three years.

South East Regional Centre for Urban Landcare (SERCUL) and the Wilson Wetland Action Group have used the Resource Management funding to tackle the infestation with a monthly programme. Use of business card printing can allow SERCUL personnel to keep in contact with the other organisations with which they are working.