Goats are being used to remove weeds in Knox reserves

The new weed control officers in Melbourne’s outer east aren’t kidding around, with three councils using goats to clean up reserves and the results are speaking for themselves.

The new weed control officers in Knox aren’t kidding around.

Knox Council is using goats to get rid of weeds in parts of Quarry Reserve Upper Ferntree Gully, and they’re proving to be extremely effective.

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And it’s not just Knox who have taken up the services of Colin Arnold’s business GrazeAway and his herd of 100 goats, with Maroondah and Whitehorse councils, and EastLink and Melbourne Water also using the weed busters.

Knox Mayor Jake Keogh said council decided on the innovative approach to weed control because Quarry Reserve had a significant amount of weeds and a steep slope and rocky loose surface, which made conventional methods problematic and costly.

The goats hard at work at Quarry Reserve.

The now weed-free zone at the reserve.

“The goats have proved highly effective in reducing the overall amount of weeds on-site,” Cr Keogh said.

Mr Arnold said it was “staggering” what goats could do to reduce weeds and restore habitat.

“Goats deal with things other than long grass — blackberries, ivy, all sorts of things that would normally have to be pulled out and taken away,” Mr Arnold said.

“Goats by and large deal with everything, other than timber, on site.

“So you’re saving landfill, you’re not using herbicide, and it’s just a more sustainable way of doing it.”

He said the goats got a great reaction.

“Everybody loves them,” Mr Arnold said.

“We do some work … in a very public park, almost in the middle of the park in a fenced-off area, and people just love them, it’s almost like the Collingwood Children’s Farm.”

The area selected for grazing within Quarry Reserve has been selectively fenced off from

other areas.

Cr Keogh said council started using the goats in November and the program would run through to the end of June. He said there was the capacity for the goats to be reintroduced to the site every three to six months, depending on need.

Cr Keogh said the goats, funded through council’s weeding management budget, had

proved significantly cheaper than conventional forms of weed control so far.

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