Wash the vehicle BEFORE you go?

Good suggestion Mark

If it was caked in mud I'd agree, otherwise mine wouldn't have a seed on it.

Happy travels!

Good advice silkwood.

Of course, it depends what people think of as "washing the vehicle"

If you are serious about this issue - and it is a real one - the important areas to wash are underneath - the chassis rails, up behind the stone guards, right around the mudguards - all the nooks and crannies where mud collects and then goes hard as it dries out, making it quite a task to dislodge.

Unfortunately, on the road there are often a lack of facilities to achieve this as we shift from one region to the next. How many times have you seen cleaning bays where the runoff goes straight onto the surrounding area?

Cheers
Andrew

Where did you get the information that vehicles bring most of the weeds into national parks.......... Don't forget to do the same with your shoes, camp gear and tyres on bikes, trailers and vehicles.

Don't worry, the fire storm will get rid of the weeds and every animal in its path.
Just look at the Warrumbungles.

Honky

I work in the horticulture industry;

A lot of the real problem weeds are fruit bearing plants spread by birds eating the seeds & then defecating them out elsewhere - Castor Oil Plant, feral Olive, Bridal Creeper, Buckthorn, Lantana, Box Hawthorn are all examples.

Most of the others are garden escape weeds (sold by nurseries & planted in gardens/pasture, only to infest surrounding areas) Grassy weeds, bulbs, corms (sour sobs are an example), sweet pea, Salvation Jane, Cape Weed, Common Ash trees etc.

Sure, Caltrop, 3 corner jacks, medic weeds etc stick to tyres, but in the scheme of things, they're not really the big issue.

Fire will assist a lot of seeds to germinate! Just go through an area that has been burnt out 6 months after the fire went through ;)

Just about every weed that grows in my home garden (And there are a few) has been introduced here by washing vehicles on my front lawn after breaks away, I have some really exotic ones that have come home from the other side of the country and have really thrived out of their native habitat.
Cheers
Ian

Back in the days when I was working, I spent some time on the WA-SA border checkpoint doing Quarantine inspections.
This included vehicle inspections for seed and plant material on the vehicle itself.
We (the inspectors) managed to find a 2 litre icecream containers worth of seed and plant material on about every third or fourth vehicle coming into WA.
Many of these seeds/plants were not known to be in WA and posed a risk to both horticulture and agriculture if they became established here .
Most were found around the radiator area including the radiator itself and the chassis rails or subframes which were often full of seed/plant matter.
This was despite the drivers saying that they had washed/cleaned the vehicle thoroughly before leaving home.

My experience indicates that vehicles can and do carry seed/plant material and diseases and can pay a significant part in weed spread from infested to clean areas. (Just look at Dieback in the WA forests.)

Disco.

I many towns now you will find vehicle washdown points. Usually attached to a council yard (outside the fence) or at cattle drop off points.
I you avail yourself to these facilities you will not only keep your rig clean but also do the weed seed thing.
Some even have a hose to use.