Gamba Action Program
The Department of Lands, Planning and Environment continues to provide rural landholders with support in the fight against gamba grass, with the Gamba Action Program 2024-2025 opening on Friday 6 December 2024.
The Gamba Action Program (GAP) has been running in the Darwin and Katherine regions for the past 14 years providing assistance to rural landowners to control and eradicate gamba grass on their property.
The program supports up to 3000 landholders each year by loaning equipment, providing free herbicide to spray the invasive weed, and offering weed management advice.
Multiple outlets across the Top End open on Friday 6 December 2024 for landholders to pick up their allocation, while Katherine GAP starts on Saturday 1 February 2025.
Residents in Darwin’s rural area can pick up 5 litres of herbicide from the distribution outlet located at Freds Pass Reserve.
The GAP is one part of a multi-pronged approach to tackle weeds with more than $6.5 million injected into weeds management each year, which includes funding of the Gamba Army for targeted management in prioritised areas.
Darwin Regional Manager of the Weed Management Branch Shelley Inglis said the program works closely with Bushfires NT and the Northern Territory Fire and Rescue Service to minimise the threat of bushfires caused by excessive gamba grass ‘fuel loads’.
“Gamba grass is a Weed of National Significance and creates high fuel loads. This can cause uncontrollable, hot and intense fires that put people, properties and rural communities at risk,” Ms Inglis said.
“We will continue to work hard to coordinate the spraying of gamba grass across the Top End, on government land and assisting private landholders in controlling gamba on their properties.”
To find out more about the Gamba Action Program, including distribution points and the process to book your herbicide and/or loan equipment, go to the Northern Territory Government website.
