Campaign to stop waratah picking

A public education campaign has been launched to stop the illegal picking of waratahs and other wildflowers from local national parks and reserves.

The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) is holding tours and conducting a monitoring program in Brisbane Water National Park as part of the campaign.

Brisbane Water National Park, near Warrah Trig, is home to a patch of around 400 waratah blooms, which have suffered illegal picking.

NPWS biodiversity officer Mr Doug Beckers conducts a monitoring program to assess the impact of illegal picking.

The program includes painting parts of the plant blue to reduce their desirability for picking.

Mr Beckers said that removing the flowers interferes with the plant's reproduction process.

"Waratahs need the seeds formed at the flower head after the bloom dies for reproduction," he said.

"Picking the bloom removes the seeds which means that the waratahs will eventually disappear from the bush and everyone will be deprived of them including the honeyeating birds that survive on their nectar."

Mr Beckers will be monitoring the planted waratahs to help determine how much it deters illegal picking and to see whether it impacts on seed production.

NPWS has also installed signs at the site, asking people to respect the blooms by leaving them alone and reminding them that it is illegal to pick the plants.

Waratahs can only be bought for commercial sale in NSW if licensed growers have grown them.

Illegally removing waratahs and other native plants from NPWS parks and reserves can attract penalties of up to $11,000 and $1100 for each additional whole plant affected, and/or imprisonment for six months.

Press release, September 17 National Parks and Wildlife Service