[The Daily Examiner 25 Sept. 2010] NSW - WATER hyacinth, parrots feather, salvinia molesta, summer grass, coral trees, smart weed and a host of other weeds have infested the once free-flowing Alumy Creek so heavily it is in danger of dying, according to some residents. Along large sections the weed infestation is so heavy the water is no longer visible.
Water wasteland: A look along Alumy Creek, which has been completely taken over by water hyacinth.
Resident Fiona Leviny has picked up the shells of close to 50 Clarence River turtles in the 250 metres of creek frontage going through her property. She said when she first bought the property about seven years ago it was filled with pelicans, nesting swans and abundance of fish. Anglers would regularly fish the creek.
Now there are none and from bank to bank roughly 130 metres is nothing but weeds. The hyacinth and other aquatic weeds are now so thick they have formed a bed on which land-based weeds, like summer grass and coral trees, are growing.
She fears that if nothing is done soon the creek will stop flowing and become part of the adjoining land.
She believes the only permanent solution to the weed problem is to open floodgates at the Southgate end of the creek. That would allow salt water to enter the creek and kill off the weeds.
Clarence Valley Council deputy general manager Des Schroder said a salt water incursion sounded a simple and workable solution but in practice was extremely difficult to implement because of conflicting legislation, land use and views by users.
He said that tidal waterways, which Alumy Creek was until human intervention through the flood gates and blockages in Grafton, were owned by the State, but that responsibility for weed control, in theory at least, belonged to landowners.
Compounding the difficulties was the fact that about 80 water licences had been issued to landowners so they could irrigate from the stream. Their right to irrigate would effectively be taken away if salt water was allowed in.
"You can't just take that away," he said.
Water hyacinth weevils (see page 6) had been introduced to help control the hyacinth infestation, but they would be killed off if herbicides were used.
"It is very complicated," he said.
Mr Schroder said a report on options to clear the creek would be presented to the council in the next couple of months.
