Even though the spraying in April 2005 had killed many of the blackberries, there were now a lot of dead blackberry canes that needed to be removed before planting could be contemplated. Also, over 2005 the grass on the property had grown, especially since it was no longer being periodically grazed by agisted cattle. Much of the block now looked like this, including one of the many wombats whose home was Blue Range Close!

In March 2006, we therefore employed a local contractor to slash the block to mulch the blackberry canes and the high grass. Two of his slashers/mulchers are shown below.

The idea was to reduce the grass height to stubble, which would then pose less of a problem when the soil cultivation was later performed in preparation for planting.

One of the mulchers is seen in action below. It was very effective in cleaning up the block.

However, a word of warning - be very careful when dealing with dry grass!

Halfway through the mulching, one of the blades on the mulchers struck a rock, created a spark, and lit a small grass fire behind the mulcher as it moved along. By the time the driver had looked behind, as they periodically do to check for such events, the grass fire has taken hold and with a following breeze was starting to catch up with the mulcher. Even though they were equipped with fire-fighting equipment on the tractors, the drivers were no match for the developing fire. They therefore wisely put discretion before valour, and called "000" for the local CFA. Within minutes, the CFA had arrived and started fighting the fire. The picture below shows the aftermath (about 2 hours later) after the fire had been brought under control.