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Introduction
I've lived most of my life in South Australia and many times I've observed weeds in public gardens that could easily be controlled if just one or two people wanted to spend a little of their spare time on it.Three years before starting on this page I moved 2,500 kilometres away to Mandurah in Western Australia. Here the situation is the same. There are beautiful parks within a kilometre of two of my home and it seems that I'm the only private individual who takes the trouble to look after them by controlling weeds.
Most people seem to think that the local government authorities should do the work, but of course the council and the parks authorities just doesn't have sufficient staff to do all the things than could be done or need to be done. They do what they can within the limits of their budgets. Who wants to pay higher council rates and taxes so that the authorities can employ more staff? No-one.
There are many retired people who could pull out a few of the weeds that they see when they go out walking. In most cases the plants that are weeds are quite obvious.
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The weeds in my area
The two most prolific, common, fecund, and invasive weeds in my area (Erskine, Mandurah, Western Australia) are fleabane (Erigeron species) and dune onion weed (Trachyandra divaricata). (Shown on the images on the right of this page.) After working on them in my spare time over the last three years I believe that I have largely got them under control. I've dug out, pulled out, or sprayed tens of thousands of each.The area I live in is low-lying and there are swamps - some seasonal and at least one that has water in it year-round. I've largely controlled a couple of the most conspicuous and invasive of the weeds in the seasonal swamp and its surrounding reserve near my home, several similar swamp-reserves nearby are sadly neglected. The reserve I look after is the Len Howard Conservation Park, and in particular, the section around the swamp that I call, for want of an official name, the Big Seasonal Paperbark Swamp.
Almost anyone could do the same for their own area, but sadly such people are very few. I have never understood why. Would you be willing to get involved?
What is a weed
In discussing this on-line, and with a few people I've come across while weeding, it's been suggested to me that people don't pull out weeds either because they are not sure which plants are weeds and whether they are allowed to get involved.On the first of those points, I'd say that in the great majority of cases which plants are the weeds is pretty damned obvious. A little research, or some questions to your local authorities, should help you learn which plants are weeds and which are not. Of course we must be careful to not pull out the wrong plants, so my advice is, if you're not sure, leave it be.
On the second point, use your discretion. I was once reprimanded for removing weeds from a park by an over-officious ranger, but that was soon sorted out.