The grass is growing quickly in your back yard after all this rain and it feels like you only mowed it last weekend.
Well spare a thought for Ipswich City Council crews who are working above and beyond to mow the region’s reserves, parks, sports fields and kerbsides.
From brown, crispy, almost vanishing grass to lush, thriving green growth in just two weeks … what a difference a bit of rain can make.
General Manager of Infrastructure and Environment Charlie Dill said the 100-plus millimetres of rain across Ipswich in the past week has meant substantial grass growth and a high volume of service requests from the public for mowing activities.
“Council is very aware of the growth and we’re addressing it as best and as quickly as possible,” he said.
“However we can’t be across the entire city at once and it will take some time to do so.
“Council teams are working overtime to address the grass growth, however we are conscious of our employees’ health and wellbeing and therefore need to manage fatigue levels accordingly.”
More than 60 staff are manning the 20 mowing tractors and ride-on mowers for council.
And it is a time-consuming job.
For example, Redbank Plains Recreational Reserve can take up to five days to complete a full maintenance visit. This can vary depending on the length and thickness of the grass.
Obviously not all parks are of this size, so times can vary from a couple of hours per park to a couple of days.
“The rain gets the grass growing, however it also exacerbates the situation as when it’s raining we’re unable to undertake maintenance activities due to the wet conditions above and underfoot,” Mr Dill said.
“When the rain stops the conditions in our parks are not always ideal and this makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to access these areas to mow the grass without creating damage to the parks, fields and playing surfaces.
“We ask residents to be patient while council works through this current grass growth spurt and gets our parks and streets back to the standard we and the community expect.”
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