Ipswich residents have been stepping up to tackle the fast-growing grass in the wake of a wet season, with which the council has struggled to keep up.
The city experienced 19 days of rain in January, totalling 220 millimetres, which significantly slowed down Ipswich City Council’s ability to mow local parks, sporting fields, and footpaths. According to the Council, in early February mowing crews began working longer hours and on weekends with additional staff brought in to get the city’s mowing schedule back on track.
Council CEO Sonia Cooper said the delays were inevitable.
“[The] combination of significant rainfall and very humid and hot conditions accelerate the speed at which grass is growing,” Ms Cooper said.
“At the same time, we are unable to mow during rainy weather as it can be dangerous for staff and damage our machinery.”
However, residents have become increasingly impatient. Over the last few weeks, locals with lawnmowers and whipper-snippers, professional and otherwise, shared on social media their personal efforts to cut down tall grass in their neighbourhoods they say had been neglected by Council for months.
One anonymous Facebook user posted photographs of a particularly unkempt laneway in Bellbird Park connecting Harris Street to Redbank Plains Road, and within 24 hours a generous resident had taken the initiative to mow it, posting photos of the results.
James Tanner, a resident of the Bellbird Park area for about 35 years, said the Council was relying on residents to report problems that needed fixing, particularly via the app ‘Snap Send Solve’.
“[The Council has] no proactive agenda. They should be going around patrolling,” James said.
“[Big parks like Queens Park] are manicured like you wouldn’t believe, but as soon as you get in the suburbs, or where kids walk to school (like on Jones Road) … the grass is about four or five feet high… [and there are] snakes. Unless somebody in the community reports it [via the app], that’s how it stays.”
“Our local park, Jennings Park, [is] mowed by people living there… The last time that park was mowed by Council was four months ago.”
James said he found it difficult to arrange a meeting with his local councillor.
