The Royal Botanic Gardens of Sydney

African Olive

Clearing weeds is difficult, especially on a large scale, but massive progress has been made with the invasive African Olive at The Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan.

African Olive tree with berries

The Natural Areas and Open Spaces team continue to hack away at the weed issues across the site, with the African Olive (Olea europaea subsp. cuspidata) being the prime offender.

The Boer goat trial at the Garden reached an audience of more than 28 million people via the media and continues to spark debate about the best way to tackle issues around woody weed management.

Our team’s dedication is paying dividends

 

JOHN SIEMON, CURATOR MANAGER

 

Bulldozer clearing African Olive trees

Our preferred and most efficient method for removing the Olive trees is a forest mulching technique, where large machines grind and chip all the trees to the ground, returning them to the forest floor as dense mulch.

From our before and after photos, you will see that our team’s dedication is paying dividends as their efforts transform the Garden landscape. Led by Jordan Scott, with a talented group of contractors, the team has removed 17 hectares of Olive this year alone.

The Garden now faces the challenge of managing and restoring the vegetation on the cleared land.

We continue the battle to remove the remaining Olive plants, particularly the 25 hectares of dense trees on the Mount Annan summit, subject to sourcing additional funds to complete the eradication program.