by Cam Lucadou-Wells
Greater Dandenong Council’s mowing regime has escalated to try to tame the jungles of grass in its parks and reserves.
Staff were now mowing on Saturdays and Sundays as well as early and late on weekdays to get on top of the issue, city engineering director Paul Kearsley told a council meeting on 29 November.
High profile parks such as Dandenong Park and Keysborough South are being prioritised for mows every three weeks, he said.
Sports grounds had been double-cut in a week for the first time in several weeks. They had also been plied with growth inhibitors.
“With double cuts going forward, they will be presenting well in the next fortnight.”
Mowing was boosted to every three weeks at the sides of Cheltenham Road, Princes Highway and Springvale Road, as well as extra mows at Somerfield Reserve and Djering Trail.
“With the current beautiful weather – with no rain, we don’t need any more rain – the parks should start to be drying out.
“And therefore they should start to become accessible for our mowing machines.”
In public question time, the federal Greens candidate for Bruce and former councillor Matthew Kirwan said residents had been complaining about overgrown grass in parks.
He asked if the council would start taking into account the impact of climate change in its mowing schedules.
Mr Kearsley said officers would report on the impacts of the recent wet, warm weather.
“If that means that we have to tweak our program, tweak our budgets as we go through … El Nina then we can certainly put that to Council for some further consideration.”
In response, Mr Kirwan told Star Journal that ascribing the events to El Nina ignored the rising frequency of extreme weather due to climate change.
He said maintenance schedules had to match this impact.
