What do you do about a plant that is both a highly invasive pest and a wonder crop for the beef industry?
Susan Cunningham's property backs onto a creek in Rockhampton and leucaena is running wild over her property.
"It's always been a problem, but it's become really bad in the last few years," she said.
"When we moved here we had to work really hard to get rid of it.
"It's really quite demoralising and scary to look at how much work is ahead of me."
Rockhampton's planning and regulation councillor, Grant Mathers, said leucaena was a challenge right along the Queensland coast.
"We're hearing reports up in Townsville, Whitsundays and also down in Gympie," he said.
"When it gets into our urban areas … it just chokes up our waterways.
"We have major issues in regard to localised flooding, and the other issue we have is a fire danger, because leucaena does burn quite easily and it burns quite hot."
Cr Mathers said the plant was not an invasive species in Rockhampton because it provided benefits for graziers.
"It's a bit of a hard one because it's still allowed to be grown as cattle fodder, so it can't be something that's classed as invasive," he said.
So what makes leucaena a wonder plant?
Bron Christensen is the executive officer of the Leucaena Network, a producer group that advocates for the use of leucaena as a fodder crop in the beef industry.
She said leucaena had surged in popularity in recent years, particularly since the University of Queensland released a psyllid-resistant variety of the plant known as Redlands in 2019.
"It's a legume so it fixes nitrogen, it can increase live weight gain, and it also enables you to increase your stocking rate by up to four times.
"It has a lot of benefits to productivity."
Ms Christensen said the plant's ability to grow in harsh conditions was particularly beneficial in the unpredictable Queensland climate.
"It's got a very deep tap root and it's very robust," she said.
"It does have the ability to hold on during prolonged drought or dry conditions."
North Queensland grazier Greg Brown, who is a former president of the Cattle Council of Australia, said leucaena's ability to survive was a key drawcard for producers.
"It's a plant that'll have greenery 365 days a year and it can double your annual weight gain," he said.
The rural code
But Mr Brown said leucaena could be a problem when poorly managed.
"You do have to put a lot of effort into it to get the ultimate benefits and also to make sure you're not creating a problem for someone else.
"Most people do, but not everybody is that conscientious."
Ms Christensen said while there was around 150,000 hectares of the plant on grazing property across Queensland, the leucaena creeping into towns was not the result of rural expansion.
"A lot of the issues that you'll see in waterways and metropolitan areas is [they're] actually planted with common leucaena — a different variety to what producers plant for grazing," she said.
"I have had a bit of pushback from people saying farmers should be getting in the rivers and clearing out the creeks, but as a producer group, with it being common leucaena, there's not actually a lot that we can do or that we should require our graziers to do."
She said graziers abided by a strict code of practice.
Money for management
Cr Mathers said the Rockhampton Regional Council was doing the best it could to manage the plant's rapid expansion, but jurisdiction and funding issues were hindering the efforts.
"A lot of people don't understand the waterways we have all through our region are actually controlled by the state government," he said.
"It's really hard for local government; we can't get in those waterways and work on the issue until we have permission from the state government.
A spokesperson for Biosecurity Queensland said leucaena was not a prohibited or restricted invasive plant under the Biosecurity Act.
"A private property owner is responsible for managing feral leucaena on the banks and beds of watercourses situated in or on their property," they said.
"Local governments may declare feral leucaena as a pest under local laws and require control actions to be taken."
