Royden Island Tasmania is a particularly pretty little Island, its gentle slopes rise up to a tall but very climbable rocky hill in its centre and it has a beautiful beach on its eastern side where the penguins come ashore each evening. However, Royden, along with many other coastal and arid regions of Australia, is infested with a particularly noxious weed, the Boxthorn. A thorny shrub that was introduced from South Africa, traditionally used as cattle corrals. Unfortunately, like many introduced species, it thrives in Australia, to the detriment of our own local flora and fauna.
A dedicated group of volunteers called the Friends of Bass Straight, organised by Kat Hopkins, a Flinders Island local, have been tackling the Boxthorn infestation on the Furneaux Islands for the better part ten years. Armed with small government grants, a team of willing volunteers for around the country and many favours from locals; Kat and the group have been methodically working through the islands in Bass strait to rid them of this weed.
Tom and I joined the group for 4 days in May, to lend a hand and try to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges facing these remote, but beautiful islands. When we arrived on Royden, Kat and the rest of the group had been busy working for 10 days already and this was just the first of 3 trips planned to the Islands this year.
We learnt quickly that Boxthorn is a bad plant – yes, it is invasive and disturbs the balance in our natural environments, but it is also one of the most physical obnoxious plants you’re likely to ever meet. It is tough and is covered in spikes up to an inch and a half long, that can penetrate pretty much any glove, item of clothing or sole of a work boot! So, after a few days of physically sawing, painting, dragging and burning, boxthorn, most of us rooky volunteers were tending to a boxthorn inflicted wound of some sort.
That said, working in a place like Royden amongst such a dedicated group of volunteers was a real treat. It highlighted the potential of truly grass roots conservation programs and triggered many thoughts about how society more generally could band together more effectively to tackle problems that impact us all, particularly in the cities. We learnt during our trip that a community group dedicated to tackling a seemingly huge challenge has the potential to succeed with perseverance, that the phrase noxious weed can be taken literally in the case of Boxthorn, that penguins are noisy at night in their nests but completely quiet when they cross a beach …..and that damper can be made on a bonfire to rival any Melbourne or Sydney artisanal bakery.
Big thanks to Kat, Mark for organising this and many other trips over the years and having us, along with the other vollies.
Royden Island, is a part of the Fernaux Group of Islands, located in the eastern end of Australia’s Bass Strait. It sits approximately 2 km offshore from the largest of the Furneaux Islands, Flinders Island.