DOUGLAS DALY TOURIST PARK

Turf Success in the Top End

DOUGLAS DALY TOURIST PARK

Douglas Daly Tourist Park in the Northern Territory is alive with wildlife. Local bandicoots, wallabies, quolls, plus over 100 different bird species are regulars at the park, along with the guests and tourists.

While this wildlife brings the park to life, it also presents its own set of challenges. One in particular relates to grassed areas of the park. In front of the office and around the outdoor barbeque area have been difficult areas to maintain consistent ground cover for many years. The wallabies and kangaroos regularly frequent the area and would continually eat the grass down to the dirt. Combine this with a considerable amount of shade in the area and the grass did not have much of a chance to establish and thrive. Dan Thomson and Sarah Measey from Top End Turf were consulted by the owners of the park to find a solution to this troublesome area. Soft leaf buffalo and couch varieties were initially trialled in the area and neither was able to survive in the difficult conditions.

“We had tried several varieties in that spot, and all had failed due to either shade, wear, drainage or wallabies.” Mr Thomson said.

Enter Sir Grange Zoysia (Zoysia Matrella)

“We put Sir Grange Zoysia there as a trial when we first got the grass. Its stated attributes made it a very strong candidate for an impossible location.” He continued.

“It turned out that it was everything we were hoping it would be, plus we found that it

“We had tried several varieties in that spot, and all had failed due to either shade, wear, drainage or wallabies.” - Dan Thomson, Top End Turf

was unpalatable to wallabies. Foot traffic had to be reduced in the full shade areas to get a more consistent coverage. But overall, it performs above and beyond everything else that has been tried in this area in the past.” Mr Thomson said.

Wildlife such as Wallabies, Kangaroo’s and Heirs tend to stay away from Sir Grange because of some specific structural attributes:

High silica content in the leaf Salt gland which accumulates salts and extracts them via the leaf Low nutrient input requirement – hence only low levels of nutrient are available in the leaf structure.

All these attributes make the grass less desirable to local wildlife.

The Sir Grange has been down for 3 years now and looks fantastic. Local wildlife still like to walk and sit on the grass, but they move on elsewhere when they are grazing.