How warmer and wetter weather is worsening the eastern suburbs' blackberry weed problems

Anyone who drives through the east may have seen large, white “blackberry removal” signs along the roadside.

The grassroots advertising campaign was the brainchild of 82-year-old Mevyn Whittaker, who runs Bayswater business Blackberry Removal. The business specialises in removing and eradicating the weed across Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, including Camberwell, Eltham, Warrandyte and Mount Evelyn.

⚫️ Why are blackberries a problem? In Australia, the European Blackberry weed (Rubus fruticosus aggregate) is a Weed of National Significance under the Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994.

• Blackberries are highly invasive, can take over vegetation, clog up waterways and can have a negative effect on agricultural crops and the local economy.

• Introduced to Australia in the 1840s as a horticulture plant for growing its fruit, blackberries have become a problem in Melbourne’s east for residential and industrial properties, acreage and public spaces.

• At the local government level, Yarra Ranges Council receives funding for weed control projects from the State Government’s Peri-urban Weed Management Partnerships program.

• According to the Invasive Species Council, weeds including blackberry cost Australia over $5 billion a year in agricultural and environmental damage. Roughly 60% of bushland in Victoria is prone to blackberry invasion.

🏡Home-grown problems: “Individual communities have different issues,” said Lyn Coulston, the chairperson of the Victorian Blackberry Taskforce, which detected issues around the capabilities of ageing populations in tackling the weed 20 years.

• 🗣️ “Ageing landowners is an issue because of limited access and not being able to drive machinery like tractors,” Coulston told the Eastern Melburnian. “The physical and financial capacity of many landholders impacts on their ability to control blackberries.”

😷 Health issues a roadblock: Mevyn Whittaker from Blackberry Removal in Bayswater said elderly customers – some with serious health conditions – are worst affected, including one of his customers with dementia, who had blackberry growth as high as her two-storey house.

• 🗣️“She couldn’t get to the garage, couldn’t get her tools,” Whittaker told the Eastern Melburnian. “We were able to clear it in a couple of days.” 

☔️ ☀️ Wet summers and warm winters: Higher annual rainfall conditions in Melbourne’s outer east have created a perfect storm for blackberries to thrive, with annual records from Melbourne Water and the Bureau of Meteorology ranging from 700mm to more than 1,200mm.

• “I have to say it’s getting worse, and there are many reasons for that,” said Coulston.  “We saw a huge increase in blackberry over the three wet summers we had from around 2021. In local government areas with higher rain, you’re going to have bigger challenges compared to other areas of the state.”

🔥 Fire also plants the seed for blackberry growth: Studies have shown that some blackberry seeds can survive high-intensity fire, with Coulston using the 2020 upper Murray bushfires as an example of how the weed can return with a vengeance after a bushfire.

• 🗣️ “Four weeks after those fires – when there was rain – blackberries came up from seed banks on properties where they thought they had their blackberries under control years ago,” said Coulston. “The more bushfires we have, the worse the problem gets.”

🥵 More heat, more fires: According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the last financial year running from July 2024 to June 2025 was officially Australia’s warmest on record, with the national average temperature 1.68 degrees Celsius above the 1961-1990 average.

• According to the Australian and New Zealand Council for fire and emergency services’ – also known as AFAC – Summer 2025 Seasonal Bushfire Outlook, there will be an increased risk of fire for most of western and north-east Victoria, due to severe rainfall deficits.

❓Whose problem is it, anyway? Being a Weed of Significance, blackberry control lies in the hands of affected residential or business owners.

• But Whittaker said his business could only help get rid of the bulk of the growth, not follow up.

• 🗣️ “I feel duty-bound to advise them that that’s not the end of it – you’re in a war,” said Whittaker. “I leave people with an eradication kit consisting of a litre of poison from Bunnings, pump and spray, and some dye that they can use on plants that they’ve sprayed.”

Are blackberries a lost cause? The Victorian Blackberry Taskforce’s current recommendations for blackberry removal are by physical and biological means as well as the use of herbicides, but Coulston said the team is now looking at drone technology for spraying.

• However, Coulston said now was the time to start thinking about how state and federal governments could step in.

• 🗣️ “Bio control is what we should be looking into and investing in it,” said Coulston. “We have to look at the long term; what is it that we need to find that is going to reduce the spread of blackberries? We really need to have that solution. We’re not investing at the moment in this work. We need a game-changer.”