Managing gamba grass and landholder responsibilities

If you're a landholder in the Northern Territory (NT), you must take all reasonable measures to prevent gamba grass from spreading on your land or to other people's land.

Different requirements apply to the zone you're in. If you're unsure, check your declaration zone.

What you must do

If your property is in the class A zone, you must destroy all gamba on your property by July 2023.

If your property is in the class B zone and it's:

less than 3 ha (7.4 acres), you must destroy all gamba by July 2023
bigger than 3 ha (7.4 acres), you must:
- have a 15m wide gamba-free area around your property boundaries, driveways and infrastructure
- actively reduce gamba plants every year
- destroy all outlier gamba grass plants and infestations as soon as possible.

These are requirements under the weed management plan - 2020 to 2030 PDF (2.0 MB). Read about the management plan.

Mitigation and compliance

The Weed Management Branch and the Gamba Fire Mitigation Unit are responsible for checking that you're doing what you should about your gamba.

The Gamba Fire Mitigation Unit addresses areas where:

unmanaged gamba grass is creating high fuel loads
there's non-compliance with the Weeds Management Act 2001 and the Bushfires Management Act 2016.

The Weed Management Branch address gamba in other areas of the NT.

For more information, read the:

As a part of this compliance process, your property may be inspected for gamba grass. This will be done by weed management officers.

If you don't comply, you may receive a management order or fine.

See the below image for an example of how you can comply.

Bushfire planning and mitigation strategies

To test a range of bushfire planning and mitigation strategies relevant to gamba grass on rural residential blocks, check out the Darwin rural fire simulation.

Contact

If you have any questions, contact the Weed Management Branch.

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