Prickly Pear - Dalby, Queensland, Australia
S 27° 10.991 E 151° 15.987
56J E 328269 N 6992088
This 'oval' metal plaque details the noxious plant invasion by Prickly Pear.
Waymark Code: WM17XWT
Location: Queensland, Australia
Date Posted: 04/18/2023
Views: 1
The Historical Marker here is an ovoid metal disc bolted to what could a basalt stone cairn of four sides and a squat pyramidal peak, standing about 1.5 metres high. It is in the Marble Street Park next to the Myall Creek; and near a Public Playground and a Flood Level Gauge. The inscription of the Marker is as follows:
"In 1925, Prickly Pear, the greatest example known to man of any noxious plant invasion, infested fifty million acres of land in Queensland, of which thirty million represented a complete coverage. The Dalby District was then heavily infested. The biological control investigation was undertaken by the Commonwealth Prickly Pear Board, the joint project of the Commonwealth, Queensland and New South Wales Governments.
"Early in 1925, a small number of Cactoblastis cactorum insects was introduced from the Argentine by Alan Parkhurst Dodd, O.B.E., who was Officer-in-Charge of this scientific undertaking. They were bred in very large numbers and liberated throughout the prickly pear territory. Within ten years, the insects had destroyed all the dense masses of prickly pear.
'This plaque, affixed by the Queensland Women's Historical Association on Thursday 27th May, 1965, records the indebtedness of the people of Queensland, and Dalby in particular, to the Cactoblastis cactorum, and their gratitude for deliverance from that scourge.'
Address: Marble Street Park, 20 Marble Street, Dalby, Qld, 4405, Australia
Visited: 1625, Wednesday, 15 June, 2022