Written by Jo Powell
I have to confess that I now harbour murderous thoughts towards any garden cacti that resemble Opuntia robusta or Wheel Cacti. I swear these cacti are plotting world domination with their hellish ability to recreate.
This ANZAC Day weekend, our annual Parnaroo Cactus Cull delivered everything we love: bush camping, hiking in the scrub, campfires, and the deeply satisfying feel of injecting poison into cacti. With beautiful new injector packs that made injecting a joy (we looked like environmental Ghost Busters), over 4,500 cacti were dispatched, and 100 litres of glyphosate was put into noble use.
What set apart this year from previous years was the WATER. Remember, Parnaroo is just east of Peterborough, dry, arid, red earth – an area cacti thrive. But this year, there was an enormous lagoon, ripe for swimming and kayaking, that hadn’t had water in it since 1974. Some of our volunteers weren’t even born then. Some of our volunteer’s parents weren’t even born then. And yabbies – big ones – that the kids had fun catching. And flies and grasshoppers… but also birds, caterpillars, butterflies, flowers and more bright green than I’ve ever seen up north.
Landowners, Trevor, Craig and Catherine treated us to huge campfires each night and a couple of wonderful roast dinners. The kids turned into pyromaniacs and nurtured their own fires, roasting marshmallows and rivalling the adults’ enjoyment in flame watching. (Who needs a TV when there’s a fire to watch?)
All up, it was one of those times that reminds you why we do this — not just for the land and the satisfaction of assisting to rid it of this feral weed, but for the laughter, the dirt, the shared meals, the smoky clothes, and the memories that stick around far longer than the prickles.
