Rod Turner is everything you might expect from a grazier who's run cattle on the open red plains of south-west Queensland for 20 years — he's resilient, tough and unflappable.
But a tiny native plant that's booming across his pasture has him dreading summer. Hidden in its pretty yellow flowers is a cattle-killing toxin and a trauma he'd rather not relive.
Pimelea is a native plant found on more than a third of Australian pastoral land. In 2016 it boomed in the west, devastating the Turners and their neighbours as they watched their cattle die horrific deaths.
"It got to the stage that every time we were out in the paddock and would see an ant hill amongst the grass we would think 'Oh god, not another dead cow,'" he said.
"It was very traumatic."
The plant swiftly killed 18 of their cattle. Another 47 were left in a serious condition but were eventually nursed back to health.
Some of Mr Turner's neighbours were not so lucky.
"They lost up to 400 head of cattle," he said.
Now alarm bells are again ringing as record amounts of the plant have been spotted in the paddocks this season.
Drowning from the inside
Pimela poisoning, or St George disease as it has been previously known, was first documented in Queensland in 1921. Cases were also reported in New South Wales in 1930 and South Australia in 1948.
But it wasn't until 1960 that the native plant was identified as the cause of the illness that led to fluid swelling, "profuse bloody diarrhoea so dark it's almost black" and breathing difficulties.
Mary Fletcher leads the natural toxin group at the Centre for Animal Science, part of the Queensland Alliance for Agricultural and Food Innovation (QAAFI) and has studied pimelea for decades.
She likened the effect of the plant on cattle to being like a kink in a hose.
"It's sort of like drowning internally," she said.
"The plant's toxin causes constriction of the pulmonary venules, which are the venules that pump the blood from the heart to the lungs.
"Because of the heart not being able to pump, it leaks fluid out into all the body cavities."
It was a gruesome end for the animal, and a traumatic experience for the graziers trying to nurse them.
A dangerous season ahead
Right now pimelea is still green and in its growing stage, emitting an odour that discourages cattle from eating it.
But it's early enough for Mr Turner to get a feel for how much of the plant is in his paddocks this season.
"It's the worst infestation we've seen ever. It's like a wheat crop in a lot of places," he said.
"I think that here we could be in for a perfect storm … in the next month or so as it dries out."
As pimelea finishes growing and dries off its stench disappears, allowing it to blend in with other grasses that cattle regularly graze on.
"They just don't see it, so it could be very, very, very dangerous," Mr Turner said.
No cure, no treatment, no silver bullet
There is currently no scientifically proven cure for pimelea poisoning and, because it is a native plant, graziers cannot manage it with herbicides, Professor Fletcher says.
But that has not stopped some graziers from looking at other options to protect their cattle.
"We've found that bentonite [clay] is the one thing that negates the toxicity of the toxin that pimelea puts into your cattle," Mr Turner said.
The Turners, like many other cattle producers in the region, have started to introduce the clay to the cattle within their regular lick feed supplements.
"It seems to just put a lining of clay in the stomach that blocks the toxin from knocking the cattle 'round," he said.
"We definitely don't have the silver bullet yet, but this is all we can do at the moment."
