That is the stark warning from weed experts battling to eradicate the invasion of tropical soda apple. If untreated, the weed can wreak ecological havoc over a wide area.

In a presentation to Kempsey Shire Council’s December meeting, Mid North Coast Weeds (MNCW) regional weeds management officer Terry Schmitzer painted a bleak picture.

Responding to Cr Betty Green’s inquiry about the “worst-case scenario”, he said:

“Tropical soda apple has the ability to dominate the whole of the floodplain and exclude all (other) vegetation over 95 to 100 per cent of the land.”

Those attending the meeting heard that about 10 per cent of landowners by the banks of the Upper Macleay had failed to act on the infestation.

This threatened to undo the work of the 20 per cent, or so, of landowners doing “an excellent job” of spraying tropical soda apple plants on their properties, and the remainder taking steps to meet their weed control obligations.

The council’s Ecologically Sustainable Development officer, Bill Larkin, told the meeting a 91km stretch of the Macleay from Turners Flat up to Blackbird Flat had been heavily infested with the weed on both riverbanks.

Floodwaters had brought it as far downriver as Euroka and into the centre of Kempsey.

He said it was easier to control the infestation downriver from Bellbrook, as the plants were first generation, with no seedbank established.

Further upriver many of the plants have seeded. A team of eight from MNCW, including weed officers from the Hastings, Great Lakes, Gloucester and Kempsey, had sprayed meticulously about 30km of river in a week, this month.

This had been facilitated by a grant of $150,000 from the Northern Rivers Catchment Management Authority, of which $50,000 was being set aside to improve landowners’ capacity to control the weed.

A task force has been set up by the Kempsey Shire and the neighbouring Armidale Dumaresq councils.

Mr Schmitzer asked Kempsey Shire officials to send a letter to their counterparts at Armidale requesting they move swiftly to control the infestation within their boundaries.

He said tropical soda apple seed was viable for only 26 months and if it could be kept from fruiting and seeding over the next two years it should be eradicated.

The council’s Weeds Officer Greg Egan said:

“We don’t want this in our valley.

“We need to push Andrew Stoner (for NSW government assistance) as Minister of Lands.”

Councillors voted unanimously to support a motion from Cr Dean Saul to highlight the need for landholders to take action to eradicated tropical soda apple already established on their properties; to engage with state and federal members of parliament by raising awareness of the impact of the weed; to notify landholders of the penalties for non-compliance of control measures.

An amendment to request Armidale Dumaresq Council to move swiftly on controlling the weed also passed unanimously.