WA’s guide of the year and local ecotourism guru Sean Blocksidge has a simple message for landholders thinking about joining Nature Conservation Margaret River Region’s Arum Lily Blitz.
“Sign up and get involved – you’ll have rapid results in the first year and it makes a stunning difference to the bushscape once they are eliminated,” says the owner and operator of Margaret River Discovery Company, which specialises in four-wheel drive tours exploring the nature and wine of the region.
Now in its sixth year, the Arum Lily Blitz is funded by the WA Government’s State Natural Resources Management Program and run by Nature Conservation Margaret River Region, which coordinates government agencies, community groups and landholders against the threat of arum lilies, while also supplying free herbicide and training to landholders.
More than 2100 landholders are now signed up to the Blitz and arum lilies are being controlled over more than 24,000 hectares in the Margaret River region.
One of those landholders is Sean Blocksidge and his partner Erin Davey, who joined the Arum Lily Blitz in 2018 along with many nearby residents and neighbours in the Kilcarnup area. “Our 2ha property was completely infested with thousands of lilies that had taken over the bushscape,” he recalls. “It was a horrible mess and looked quite insurmountable at the start, but we had immediate success in dramatically reducing numbers on our first spray season.”
Sean, who in 2010 was named Western Australian Guide of the Year and whose tours have been consistently rated the number one Margaret River tour experience on Tripadvisor, says he kept up a spray regime each subsequent year but still had some persistent arum lilies coming through.
“I was starting to question if we’d ever achieve full elimination and doubted my thoroughness, so I contacted Nature Conservation Margaret River Region requesting advice,” he says. “They recommended a shared cost spraying campaign with them. They sent their A-team best, including spray contractor Rick Ensley. He was next level and took it as a personal mission to find every remaining lily and spray them. He was a weed killing machine and got under every log and obstacle they were hiding.”
Sean says the consolidated effort made a huge difference. “A year later there are no arum lilies,” he recalls. “A remarkable result that has transformed the bush. The shared blitz campaign totally worked.”
The tour guide says keeping his property arum lily free is now simple. “It’s now super easy to do a quick check and spray each year for the one or two rogue lilies that appear,” he says.
Arum lilies are a South African weed, and the species is so devastating in the Margaret River region because it outcompetes native flora, reduces habitat and food availability for wildlife, and replaces native plants with a dense, toxic monoculture. Arum lilies start appearing in winter and flower in spring. For landholders on larger properties who cannot deal with arum lily infestations on their own, Nature Conservation’s Bush Regeneration Team can be hired to carry out arum control.
Free herbicide can be collected from the Nature Conservation office as well as from supporting businesses Busselton Agricultural Services, Dunsborough Rural, Vasse General Store, Cowaramup Agencies, Karridale Agencies and True Value Hardware in Augusta.
See www.natureconservation.org.au to find out more, register, and receive free herbicide, information and resources.