Revegetation efforts at Rum Jungle

Revegetation efforts at Rum Jungle were limited, and activelypromoted the planting of exotic species. The first revegetation ef-forts were conducted in 1984e1985 (Ec Oz, 2016). Staff revegetatedat the start of the wet season, ‘discouraged’ the establishment ofnative trees from areas with low permeability but allowed it inother areas, sowed exotic grasses while expecting native grasses tonaturally recolonize the whole site, and had some measures ofactive management, including the use of fertiliser and mowing(Allen et al., 1985; Verhoeven, 1988). Early revegetation efforts atRum Jungle resulted in a species mix dominated by acacias (e.g.Acacia aulacocarpa, A. auriculiformis, A. difficilis, and A. dimidiata)and exotic grass species (e.g. Sorghum bicolor, Chloris gayana, Bra-chiaria decumbens, Urochola mozambicensis, and Paspalum notatum)(Allen et al., 1985) and therefore different to the eucalypt-domi-nated ecosystem that characterizes the surrounding landscape. Theseed mix used, coupled with active management strategies,translated into great success for the introduced species from thefirst year and prevailed through dry seasons, despite fires(Verhoeven, 1988). Fertiliser treatments used 300e400 kg/ha NPKduring seeding with additional 100 kg/ha in the first and secondyears, while mowing was conducted two to three times during thefirst year and once every year or two (Verhoeven, 1988). Somenative species naturally recolonized untreated areas, includingacacias, eucalypts, and native grasses such as Urochloa pubigera,Digitaria ciliaris, Pennisetum pedicellatum, Chrysopogon spp., andHeteropogon spp. (Verhoeven, 1988).