page_title: Lake Galilee (Queensland)
section_title: Parkinsonia
hierarchical_section_title: Lake Galilee (Queensland) / Management / Weed management / Parkinsonia
caption_attribution_description: English: Parkinsonia Field day at Lake Galilee.
context_page_description: Lake Galilee is a semi-arid salt lake in the locality of Galilee, Barcadline Region, within the Desert Uplands area of Central West Queensland, Australia. The lake is about 36 kilometres long, up to 12.5 kilometres wide and covers approximately 25,700 hectares.
  Lake Galilee is registered on the Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia and provides an important refuge and breeding site for waterbirds. It has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area because it regularly supports over 1% of the world populations of freckled ducks and grey teals. and possibly more than 1% of the world population of other waterbirds and shorebirds.
  The weed Parkinsonia is posing as an environmental threat to the lake as are feral animals, grazing impacts and tourism pressures. The group of property owners adjacent to the lake are working with local natural resource management groups to manage these threats.
context_section_description: The current infestation possibly stems from one parkinsonia tree that was planted in the garden of the “Eastmere” homestead in the late 1800s. It has been spread around the lake's edge during various flood events (e.g. 1974, 1991, 2008, 2010), receding floodlines and prevailing winds. The parkinsonia is currently in several stages of treatment and ranges in size of infestation from large, dense clumps of trees; to thickets of small trees; to isolated plants and mats of seedlings.  Weed control is effective only in the summer (wet season) when the plants are growing and not in a stressed physiological state.
  As the prevailing wind is from the south-eastern edges of the lake towards the north and west, the “Friends of Lake Galilee” group decided it was best to control the southern and eastern infestations first as they are “source infestations”. Some landholders have spent years controlling parkinsonia with some properties now being relatively clean.  Of the “Friends of Lake Galilee” group six landholders have parkinsonia on their properties and two of the six also have parthenium.
  Six are implementing five-year pest management plans. Their aim is to eradicate parthenium and to contain and eradicate, if possible, the source infestations of parkinsonia around the lake. As well as funded weed projects, landholders have carried out additional control works from their own resources. Chemical methods of control have included:
  nonselective, broad spectrum herbicides for larger trees where there are no native trees;
  trialling aerial applications of herbicides for thick infestations;
  cut-stump and basal barking with a mix of herbicide and diesel for less dense thickets; and
  foliar spraying for seedlings.
  The 2011-2012 Caring For Our Country funding has enabled the participating landholders to tackle 620 hectares of parkinsonia, which is approximately twelve per cent of the total mapped infestation area around the lake.  Combined with the additional control works carried out by landholders it is estimated that the parkinsonia infestation is now down to half its original mapped area. Other control methods and chemicals are being used and trialed with varying degrees of success and the best methods for different circumstances are yet to be determined.
  Fungus inoculation trials are being conducted on “Eastmere” and other properties further north. Capsules containing a fungus that causes dieback in parkinsonia are inserted into a hole drilled into the base of the tree. Early results have been mixed, but Desert Channels Queensland and researchers are working with landholders to assess the potential of using fungus inoculation to control parkinsonia.
caption: Parkinsonia Field Day at Lake Galilee
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