Obnoxious Plants and Pestiferous Growths: how figurative language reinforces the management of weeds in Victoria, Australia

ABSTRACT

The militaristic metaphors common in public discourses about invasive species have been criticised for promoting combative management approaches and constraining policy responses. But are they really to blame for entrenching a command-and-control approach to managing weeds in Australia? Since 2000, almost every state and territory has introduced new biosecurity legislation encouraging ‘shared responsibility’. Yet, this term remains noticeably absent from new legislation in Victoria. We aim to examine whether public discourses around invasive plants have remained unchanged to better understand how invasive plants have been framed and whether this can provide insight into the lack of engagement with ‘shared responsibility’ in Victorian legislation. This study investigates figurative language used in Victorian newspapers from 1885 to 2020 to describe three invasive plants and their management: Bathurst burr, blackberry and gorse. The figurative language reveals limited acknowledgement of humans' role in the spread of weeds and emphasis on the diverse impacts of weeds on humans. Militaristic metaphors have existed for over 130 years, but are neither the most predominant nor community-mobilising. Overall, figurative language has focused on individual efforts to control weeds, without critical analysis of the inter-relationships between humans and weeds nor having created opportunities for caring or collaborative weed management.

KEYWORDS:

• Area-wide management
• invasion biology
• media analysis
• rhetoric
• natural resource management
• pest plants
• human-plant relations

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 We use the term ‘weed management’ rather than ‘invasive plants’ from hereon in because it is the main term used in policy documents and it is a broader term that encompasses plants considered to impact both agriculture and other environments.

2 This is a limited version of the definition of the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council (2007) that excludes the concept of environmental weeds because they were not widely recognised until late in the twentieth century.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Department of Resource Management and Geography, The University of Melbourne and the School of Geography and Sustainable Communities, University of Wollongong. Dr Sonia Graham wishes to acknowledge the support of an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DE200100234).