Hunter valley cannabis infestation
Encyclopedia
Cannabis sativa
Cannabis sativa is an annual herbaceous plant in the Cannabaceae family. Humans have cultivated this herb throughout recorded history as a source of industrial fibre, seed oil, food, recreation, spiritual enlightenment and medicine...
in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. At its peak, the infestation covered about 30 square kilometres (12 sq mi). It took nine years for the New South Wales government to eradicate it.
History
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, approximately 160 kilometres (99 mi) north of Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
. Due to a mild climate, an abundance of water and alluvial soils, the area is well known for its wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
production, lumber
Lumber
Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....
, dairy farming
Dairy farming
Dairy farming is a class of agricultural, or an animal husbandry, enterprise, for long-term production of milk, usually from dairy cows but also from goats and sheep, which may be either processed on-site or transported to a dairy factory for processing and eventual retail sale.Most dairy farms...
and poultry
Poultry
Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of producing eggs, meat, and/or feathers. These most typically are members of the superorder Galloanserae , especially the order Galliformes and the family Anatidae , commonly known as "waterfowl"...
industries. The Hunter River flows through Singleton
Singleton, New South Wales
-Industry & Commerce:Major industries near Singleton include coal mining, energy generation, light industry, vineyards, horse breeding and cattle production. Dairying was once a mainstay in the area, but has declined....
, and empties into the Tasman Sea
Tasman Sea
The Tasman Sea is the large body of water between Australia and New Zealand, approximately across. It extends 2,800 km from north to south. It is a south-western segment of the South Pacific Ocean. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman, the first recorded European...
at the city of Newcastle
Newcastle, New South Wales
The Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...
.
Cannabis sativa seeds first arrived in Australia in 1788 on the First Fleet
First Fleet
The First Fleet is the name given to the eleven ships which sailed from Great Britain on 13 May 1787 with about 1,487 people, including 778 convicts , to establish the first European colony in Australia, in the region which Captain Cook had named New South Wales. The fleet was led by Captain ...
at the request of Sir Joseph Banks
Joseph Banks
Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, GCB, PRS was an English naturalist, botanist and patron of the natural sciences. He took part in Captain James Cook's first great voyage . Banks is credited with the introduction to the Western world of eucalyptus, acacia, mimosa and the genus named after him,...
. The blueprint for the New South Wales colony, approved by the British Cabinet
Cabinet of the United Kingdom
The Cabinet of the United Kingdom is the collective decision-making body of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, composed of the Prime Minister and some 22 Cabinet Ministers, the most senior of the government ministers....
in 1786, envisaged Australia as a commercial colony producing hemp
Hemp
Hemp is mostly used as a name for low tetrahydrocannabinol strains of the plant Cannabis sativa, of fiber and/or oilseed varieties. In modern times, hemp has been used for industrial purposes including paper, textiles, biodegradable plastics, construction, health food and fuel with modest...
.
In 1892, the Department of Agriculture
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (Australia)
The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry is an Australian government department. The Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry’s role is to develop and implement policies and programs that ensure Australia's agricultural, fisheries, food and forestry industries...
distributed Cannabis sativa seeds to hundreds of farmers in New South Wales as an experiment in the cultivation of hemp due to the high prices of binding-twine at the time. From 1840 to the early 1900s, Australians used cannabis as a medicinal herb and Cigares de Joy (cannabis cigarettes) were sold over the counter.
The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs
Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs
The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 is an international treaty to prohibit production and supply of specific drugs and of drugs with similar effects except under licence for specific purposes, such as medical treatment and research...
, an international treaty adopted in 1961, broadened the scope of controlled substances to include Cannabis sativa. Due to rising drug use among young people and within the counter-culture movement, government efforts to enforce prohibition were strengthened in the 1960s.
Discovery
In the spring and summer of 1963, attention was called to the presence of large amounts of Cannabis sativa growing on river banks, along creeks, and near irrigationIrrigation
Irrigation may be defined as the science of artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...
channels in Hunter Valley. The New South Wales Department of Agriculture and Fisheries dispatched field officers to the affected areas to identify the plants.
The discovery created a sensation in the press. One Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
reported the find under the headline “Love Drug found in the Hunter Valley”. The discovery also aroused much interest in the fledgling bohemian
Bohemianism
Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits...
community. In April and May of each year of the infestation, small but determined bands of marijuana devotees evaded detection by police and land owners as they harvested the flowering tops of the plants. These individuals became known as weed raiders. Much of the resulting cannabis was then smuggled to Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, where it was dried, cured and illegally distributed. Marijuana smoking in Australia exploded in the next several years. Local dairy farmers demanded something be done to protect their valuable pasture lands from trespassers. The local chief of the New South Wales Police
New South Wales Police
The New South Wales Police Force is the primary law enforcement agency in the State of New South Wales, Australia. It is an agency of the Government of New South Wales within the New South Wales Ministry for Police...
Force in the Hunter Valley publicly declared that the infestation would be eradicated “within six to eight weeks”. The eradication effort would take nine years.
Eradication
The Department of Agriculture and Fisheries established a joint task force with the Police Force to begin a program of eradication on a "search and destroy" basis. Initially, plants were pulled by hand and then burned. With the reappearance of the freely seeding cannabisCannabis
Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. These three taxa are indigenous to Central Asia, and South Asia. Cannabis has long been used for fibre , for seed and seed oils, for medicinal purposes, and as a...
the next spring, hand pulling was no longer a viable option on its own. Herbicide
Herbicide
Herbicides, also commonly known as weedkillers, are pesticides used to kill unwanted plants. Selective herbicides kill specific targets while leaving the desired crop relatively unharmed. Some of these act by interfering with the growth of the weed and are often synthetic "imitations" of plant...
control was introduced on an ad hoc basis during the mid-summer months. At the height of the infestation, cannabis covered some 30 square kilometres (12 sq mi) of the Hunter Valley along 63 kilometres (39 mi) of the Hunter River downstream from Singleton
Singleton, New South Wales
-Industry & Commerce:Major industries near Singleton include coal mining, energy generation, light industry, vineyards, horse breeding and cattle production. Dairying was once a mainstay in the area, but has declined....
. Infestations ranged from small clumps of plants to dense fields of cannabis ranging up to 8 hectares (20 acre).
Eventually, it was decided to use preparations of powerful, highly toxic herbicides including 2,4-D, amitrole and bromacil
Bromacil
Bromacil is an organic compound with the chemical formula C9H13BrN2O2, commercially available as an herbicide.It is also used as rat poison...
to control the outbreak. Officers using knapsack sprayers were deployed to deal with smaller infestations, while large areas of cannabis were sprayed from small crop dusting aircraft. By 1971, only a small number of plants were found by the regular summer patrols of field officers, that could easily be pulled by hand. The eradication of the infestation was finally declared successful in 1972.