Prickly Pear Control
In The 1840s Settlers Planted Hedges With Prickly Pear Cactus. By 1925 It Had Ruined 25 Million Hectares Of Farmland
It is not known how the prickly pear or common pest pear (Opuntia stricta) first came to Australia from the Americas. It was first recorded as being cultivated for stock fodder in the Parramatta district in the early 1800’s. There is also a record of a pot plant being taken to Scone, NSW in 1839 where it was grown in a station garden. The property manager later planted it in various paddocks with the idea that it would be a good stand-by for stock in a drought year. It has also been recorded that a plant of common pear was taken from Sydney to Warwick, Queensland in 1848 for use as a garden plant, with a strong recommendation that it would be a good fruiting and hedge plant.
Early settlers took plants to other parts of New South Wales and Queensland because of its potential use as an alternate food source for stock, especially during dry times. It was also planted at various homesteads as a hedge. The hedges flourished and bore fruit. Excess pieces were dumped in the bush. With all this help, prickly pear quickly established over a large area. From garden plants to hedges and then into the paddock, prickly pear became acclimatised and spread at an alarming rate. Many people were forced off their lands.
In1886 the first (Commonwealth) Prickly-pear Destruction Act was passed that placed obligations upon owners and occupiers of land to destroy pear. Despite this no real way to curtail the advance of the Prickly-pear had been found. By 1925, prickly pear had spread ruining 25 million hectares of farmland.
In 1924, New South Wales brought its own legislation into effect. The (NSW) Prickly-pear Act 1924 provided for the setting up of a Prickly-pear Destruction Commission, with wide powers to deal with the prickly pear problem. Many often draconian measures were taken but with little effect.
The answer to the main prickly pear problem came in the form of biological control. As the amazing spread of prickly pear in eastern Australia was considered to be one of the botanical wonders of the world, its virtual destruction by cactoblastis caterpillars (Cactoblastis cactorum) is still regarded as the world’s most spectacular example of successful weed biological control. The first liberations of cactoblastis were made in 1926, after extensive laboratory testing to ensure they would not move into other plant species.
The moths laid their eggs on the prickly pear plants. When the eggs hatched, the moth caterpillars ate the plants. Within six years, most of the original, thick stands of pear were gone. Properties previously abandoned were reclaimed and brought back into production.
Interesting Note
The very first plants of prickly pear were brought into Australia on the First Fleet. Captain Arthur Phillip collected a number of COCHINEAL-INFESTED plants from Brazil on his way to establish the first white settlement at Botany Bay. The cochineal insects feed on the pad of prickly pear and adults grow to about the size of a match head. They are red in appearance and when squashed, produce a red colouring used as a dye which at the time was important to the western world’s clothing and garment industry. It was the dye used to make British soldier’s red coats. Spain and Portugal had a world-wide monopoly on supply and it was hoped to establish an industry in Australia. The variety of prickly pear introduced by Sir Joseph Banks to establish a cochineal dye industry was the “smooth tree pear” (Opuntia vulgaris) which is different from the variety that overran NSW and Qld between 1900 and 1930.
