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Weed Management
You can help us protect this World Heritage Area - Control Weeds on Your Property
Stop Weeds Spreading
Your Council
Blue Mountains City Council has an obligation under the Noxious Weeds Act 1993 as the local control authority, to reduce the negative impact of weeds on human health, the economy, community and environment.
These obligations are adhered to through:
- the control of invasive weeds on public land
- the inspection of private land
Council's Noxious Weeds Team is responsible for implementing these programs which are sub-catchment based. This means that we look at a broad landscape weed control strategy. We do this by taking a coordinated approach with residents, community groups and other agencies to control noxious weeds on all lands in selected areas regardless of land tenure.
What Is Our Aim?
Our aim is to protect biodiversity by controlling weeds and raising awareness. This is achieved through education and communication between Council Officers and landholders on effective weed control techniques and general information. To monitor the spread of noxious weeds and report new incursions within the Blue Mountains Local Government Area.
What is a Noxious Weed?
Some serious weeds are required by law to be controlled by all landholders in an area. These are known as noxious weeds and the law that controls these in NSW is the Noxious Weeds Act 1993.
Weeds that are declared noxious are those weeds that have potential to cause harm to the community and individuals, can be controlled by reasonable means and most importantly, have the potential to spread within an area and to other areas.
A weed is declared noxious because its control will provide a benefit to the community over and above the cost of implementing control programs.
Many 'bad' weeds do not meet the criteria for declaration. Noxious weeds will have limited distribution with the potential to become more widespread and will cause impact on agriculture, human health or the environment.
In New South Wales the administration of noxious weed control is the responsibility of the Minister for Primary Industries under the Noxious Weeds Act 1993. The Act is implemented and enforced by the Local Control Authority (LCA) for the area, usually local government.
The Act imposes obligations on occupiers of land to control noxious weeds declared for their area.
There are five classes of noxious weeds identified in the Act (see below). All Noxious Weeds in NSW are listed in the Noxious Weeds database.
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Control classes of noxious weeds
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Control class
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Weed type
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Control requirements
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Class 1
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Plants that pose a potentially serious threat to primary production or the environment and are not present in the State or are present only to a limited extent.
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The plant must be eradicated from the land and the land must be kept free of the plant.
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Class 2
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Plants that pose a potentially serious threat to primary production or the environment of a region to which the order applies and are not present in the region or are present only to a limited extent.
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The plant must be eradicated from the land and the land must be kept free of the plant.
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Class 3
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Plants that pose a potentially serious threat to primary production or the environment of a region to which the order applies, are not widely distributed in the area and are likely to spread in the area or to another area.
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The plant must be fully and continuously suppressed and destroyed.*
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Class 4
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Plants that pose a potentially serious threat to primary production, the environment or human health, are widely distributed in an area to which the order applies and are likely to spread in the area or to another area.
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The growth of the plant must be managed in a manner that reduces its numbers spread and incidence and continuously inhibits its reproduction.
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Class 5
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Plants that are likely, by their sale or the sale of their seeds or movement within the State or an area of the State, to spread in the State or outside the State.
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There are no requirements to control existing plants of Class 5 weeds.
However, the weeds are "notifiable" and a range of restrictions on their sale and movement exists. |
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NOTE: All Class 1, 2 and 5 weeds are prohibited from sale in NSW.
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* In some cases the following wording has also been inserted "the plant may not be sold, propagated or knowingly distributed."
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What is an Environmental Weed?
An environmental weed is a non-indigenous plant species which adversely affects the survival or regeneration of indigenous species in natural vegetation communities.