New Map of Wheel Cactus in Victoria
Posted on 22 August, 2017 by Asha
The Tarrangower Cactus Control Group (TCCG) has recently completed a project aimed at increasing awareness and knowledge about the noxious weed Wheel Cactus (Opuntia robusta), funded by Wettenhall Environment Trust. One of the valuable outcomes from this project is the construction a new map showing the distribution of Wheel Cactus infestations in Victoria. 
Our well-known former Landcare Facilitator, Max Schlachter, was employed as project officer by TCCG and has collated 345 recorded sites of Wheel Cactus within our state. These sites covered 105 different localities around Victoria, mostly in a band from the northwest to Melbourne, but including some surprising outliers elsewhere. The majority of the sites (69%) were new records, and the rest were existing records taken from current government maps, such as the Victorian Biodiversity Atlas.
Some alarming conclusions from this mapping exercise were that within some of these localities, for example ‘Maldon’, there are too many infestations to record, plus there are very likely many infestations that were not able to be captured. The information gathered through this project will help communities and land managers better understand how Wheel Cactus spreads and how best to manage it.
If you want to know more about Wheel Cactus and how to control it, you can go along to TCCG’s next Community Field Day on Sunday 27th August, CLICK HERE for more details.
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