MONDAY SEPTEMBER 17 19 MANAGING INVASIVE PLANTS IN AUSTRALIA: A DECADE OF ACHIEVEMENT McFadyen R Cooperative Research Centre for Australian Weed Management, Indooroopilly, Brisbane Qld The first Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Weeds started in 1995 and the National Weeds Strategy was launched in 1997. The first national eradication campaign against an invasive plant started in 1994, and a ‘Permitted List’ system was adopted in 1998 for entry of new plant species into Australia, using a Weed Risk Assessment System. These were major advances in the management of invasive plants in Australia, and this paper discusses the critical policy issues and turning points along the way. It also considers where policy has failed and the critical challenges for the future. 20 21 CURRENT AND POTENTIAL GEOPHYTE WEEDS OF SOUTH-WESTERN AUSTRALIA Keighery GJ Department of Environment and Conservation, Science Division, Wanneroo, WA
[email protected] South Western Australia is an internationally recognised biodiversity hotspot for flowering plants, containing over 6,000 species of which 75% are endemic. Altered land use since European settlement has lead to 1234 naturalised plants becoming established. These now pose a major threat to this biodiversity. Unlike SE Australia shrubs are a minor component of this weed flora, major weeds are grasses, annuals (Peas, Daisies and Brassicaceae) or geophytes. The 107 geophytic weeds present in Western Australia come from 18 families of plants, both Monocots and Dicots, although nearly half are cormous Iridaceae from southern Africa. Unlike many other areas of similar climates, Southern Western Australia is depauperate in geophytes, with about 200 species in our flora of c.