The debate came to the Nambucca Valley at the last council meeting in Argents Hill when local resident Paula Flack raised the issue during the public forum.

“I’ve lived on North Arm Rd for 35 years and I’ve never seen this amount of glyphosate being used before,” Ms Flack said.

“Council has a duty of care not just to ratepayers, but also to the environment.”

Staff routinely spray glyphosate as par for course during its roadside weed maintenance program.

In response to Ms Flack’s assertion that the level of spraying has increased, Council said it “has not altered its roadside weed spraying program in recent years”.

“Council has responsibilities, as does every land holder or manager under the Biosecurity Act, towards preventing, eliminating or minimising biosecurity risk (invasive weed species) as far as is reasonably practicable,” staff said.

Driver visibility was another reason stated for the necessity of regular roadside weed maintenance: “Maintaining good sight distance on our road networks, especially when you have regular school bus and logging truck interactions in our rural areas, is a priority for the safety of road users.”

Staff also said that Council tries to minimise the use of spraying in “public areas” as much as is feasible.  

But Ms Flack questioned this, pointing out in her address that there had been several “blanket spraying events” which had occurred during the middle of the night, and without the proper notification of nearby residents before the incidents.

Ms Flack said after a “blanket spraying event” a couple of years back she had met council staff to get a ‘please explain’ and had been assured that it had “been a mistake and would never happen again”.

Council has refuted this.

“Council staff are not aware of an apology being provided to North Arm residents over spraying roadside weeds on North Arm, being lantana, privets, camphor laurel and various grass weed species, but there were some complaints over the use of herbicide in the North Arm area,” staff said. 

They also said they notify residents via a “mandatory pesticide notofication in the local paper once per quarter” as per their Pesticide Notification Plan.

Ms Flack suggested that slope or ‘reach’ mowing, while more labor-intensive, would be a more environmentally sound process for weed maintenance and prevent chemicals leaching into natural water sources. She said over time “the task would become easier and quicker as vegetation adapted to being mowed”.

Cr Ainsworth responded that there are many hilly places in the Valley in which mowing simply isn’t an option.

“So I think we need to be a little bit cautious in saying a definite ‘no’ to glyphosate,” he said.

Council staff also said that due to “very limited budgets and resources” reach mowing on all public-owned Nambucca Shire land is not feasible “due to the associated costs of the machine and traffic control requirements”.

“Council has adopted a one-slasher-width mow policy on all Council managed sealed roads and no mowing of the edge of the unsealed road system,” they said.  

Ms Flack also suggested that perhaps it would be diligent for Council to notify residents of their right to “opt out” of the spraying activities directly outside their properties.

Cr Smyth agreed with this suggestion and motioned for a report to be brought to council about its weed management activities.

“I think if more people knew they were able to say ‘don’t spray outside my house’, there would be a lot more people putting their hands up for that option. That would also mean a saving in costs which could be applied towards the costs associated with mowing.”

The motion calling for staff to bring a report to council was passed unanimously.

Council staff have provided further information about Nambucca’s current stance to glyphosate and weed spraying protocol which we have included here:

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