CSIRO extends opportunity for community release program for wandering trad biocontrol across NSW

🌿 Got wandering trad on your patch?

Mid Coast 2 Tops Landcare Connection is sharing this opportunity on behalf of CSIRO for landholders, Landcare and Bushcare groups, councils, Indigenous organisations, conservation volunteers and other interested community members managing wandering trad (Tradescantia fluminensis) across NSW.

CSIRO, with support from the NSW Environmental Trust, is extending its community-led biocontrol project using the leaf-smut fungus Kordyana brasiliensis — a safe, host-specific biocontrol agent that helps reduce wandering trad and support native vegetation recovery.

Wandering trad is a highly invasive ground-covering weed that thrives in moist, shaded places like creek lines, gullies, rainforest edges and urban bushland. It can form dense mats, smother native plants and degrade habitat — which is why community-led action is so important. 🍃

Interested participants can register to receive biocontrol kits, release instructions and support, and become part of a growing network of release sites helping trial sustainable weed management across NSW.

The project will run from July 2026 to June 2027 and will focus on distributing Kordyana brasiliensis to new and priority sites, supporting releases and monitoring, and building knowledge to guide future integrated management of wandering trad.

Want to get involved? Submit an expression of interest by emailing tradbiocontrol@csiro.au or complete the form: https://forms.office.com/r/D7J3EHqu32

For more information, visit https://research.csiro.au/wandering-trad/current-research/. You can also contact the CSIRO wandering trad biocontrol team: Ben Gooden at Ben.Gooden@csiro.au or Caroline Delaisse at Caroline.Delaisse@csiro.au.

Website: Wandering Trad Biological Control More Info
For more information CSIRO Trad Biocontrol Program EOI Flyer