FROM Hopevale in the north to Charters Towers in the south and across almost to the border of the Northern Territory, vast tracts of prime grazing land have been overrun with the invasive weed, rubber vine.

It is costing cattle producers tens of millions of dollars per year in lost production and has infested more than 700,000ha (1.5 million acres) of the north’s best grazing country.

North Queensland’s Gulf Rivers’ catchment areas are the most densely infested and until recently attempts to control the pest wed have proven ineffective.

But recent concerted efforts by the Northern Gulf Resource Management Group (NGRMG), with the assistance from graziers wanting to reclaim their prime grazing country, it has been found that rubber vine can not only be controlled, it may be able to be eradicated.

Recent trials have shown that a combination of bio-control, burning and herbicide treatment can eradicate rubber vine.

The bio-control comes in the form of a rust which weakens the plant and causes major leaf drop which in turn acts as fuel for firing the area.

Rubber vine completely chokes out all native vegetation resulting in the ground beneath the canopy to be void of any fuel for a fire.

In areas where the bio-control agent has not had a lot of success, the use of fire agents such as napalm dropped from aircraft can create a hot enough fire to cause the latex in the vine to vaporise and combust thus feeding the fire.

A good fire will almost entirely eradicate the vine and any sucker regrowth can then be treated with a herbicide such as Grazon.

*Full story in this week's North Queensland Register.