What can I do?
In general:

• Learn to recognise weeds, and take early action to remove them from your property. Monitor areas where you have imported materials, or created disturbance, and be ready to control weeds as soon as they appear.
• Get unfamiliar plants identified by an expert if you suspect they may be weeds. If the have a regional Botanic Gardens its staff will be able to identify plants for you. If not, NSW Agriculture, your local Council weeds staff, National Parks and Wildlife Service or South Coast Rural Lands Protection Board staff may be able to help. If you are taking a plant to be identified immediately, put it in a plastic bag and blow into the bag to increase the humidity before sealing it tightly. If there will be a delay of more than a day before you can get the plant to someone for identification you will need to store it in the refrigerator, or if the delay is more than a couple of days you may need to press the plant to dry it. Place the plant specimen between several thicknesses of newspaper under a heavy book or similar object so that it dries flat. It is very hard to identify a plant from a curled and shrivelled specimen.
• Join or form a Bushcare, Dunecare or Landcare Group and become active in rehabilitating weedy areas. Local coordinators (listed on the contacts page) can advise you of what groups already exist in your area, or on forming a new group and applying for government funding for your project.
• Talk to your friends and neighbours about environmental weeds. Discuss any weeds or potentially weedy garden plants on their properties with them. Many people are willing to remove weeds once they are identified as such.

In the garden:

• Don’t dump garden waste. Burn it, compost it, or take it to the tip in stout plastic bags. However, remember that plastic bags are easily broken, and do not take plant material carrying light wind-dispersed seed to the tip unless it has been in the plastic bags long enough to have rotted first (see under control methods).
• Don’t dump unwanted water plants into water bodies or into the drains. Don’t buy aquarium plants with weed potential.
• Remove any plants listed in this guide from your garden, and replace them with plants which will not spread. Avoid planting any species whose seeds are packaged in edible berries which are not native to your local area, regardless of where you live, since birds can spread them over long distances. If you live close to bush, or other native vegetation, also avoid the weedier bulbs, and anything with fine wind-blown seed. Talk to your nursery salesperson about the weed potential of plants before you buy them.
• Do not extend your garden into adjacent vacant land.
• Eliminate nutrient-laden runoff from your garden. Don’t use fertilisers unnecessarily. Collect animal faeces and compost them.

On the farm or rural block:

• Avoid unnecessary soil disturbance.
• Avoid overgrazing, which creates ideal conditions for weed invasion.
• Monitor areas which have had machinery from outside the property over them for new weed arrivals.
• Clean off mowing and slashing equipment before moving between areas.
• Avoid driving over the property as much as possible, as it compacts the soil and may deposit weed seed.
• If feeding stock on imported feedstuffs, do it in a restricted area, which can be monitored for weeds.
• Quarantine new livestock for several days so weed seeds can pass through them in a confined area which can be treated later.
• Don’t shift stock straight from weedy areas into areas of remnant native vegetation. Give them a week in a "clean" paddock first.
• Get to know the timing of flowering and seed production of the weeds on your block and time your slashing, mowing or grazing to reduce seed set, not to spread seed once it has been produced.
• Be vigilant, and act early. Don’t wait until a few plants turn into a major infestation.