Where are the mowers?

The mowing has suffered since TaMS started using contractors several years ago, and coincides with a massive spread in African Love Grass.

TAMSMediaRoom said :

The ACT Government is responsible for mowing 4,500 hectares of irrigated and non-irrigated grass in urban open space and at the urban edge. The mowing schedule, which is available on the TAMS website at http://www.tams.act.gov.au, is in place to sustainably manage public open spaces. Due to the scale and diversity of mowing requirements, the mowing program is reviewed weekly to ensure the most efficient use of resources across Canberra.

The ACT Government has a base mowing fleet comprising 80 internal ride on mowers which are supported throughout the mowing season by additional contract mowers. Mowing is prioritised to address public safety including line of sight along arterial roads, for access and fire fuel reduction. Slashing and mowing programs for fuel management generally commence at the time of grass curing or drying in early summer and again in autumn. High public use areas such as sportsgrounds and town and district parks are also given a high priority for mowing.

Well, if “the mowing program is reviewed weekly to ensure the most efficient use of resources across Canberra”, its gotta be the amount of resources available – they simply are not enough – or has there been cutbacks ? There has to be some reason why.

TAMSMediaRoom said :

The ACT Government is responsible for mowing 4,500 hectares of irrigated and non-irrigated grass in urban open space and at the urban edge. The mowing schedule, which is available on the TAMS website at http://www.tams.act.gov.au, is in place to sustainably manage public open spaces. Due to the scale and diversity of mowing requirements, the mowing program is reviewed weekly to ensure the most efficient use of resources across Canberra.

The ACT Government has a base mowing fleet comprising 80 internal ride on mowers which are supported throughout the mowing season by additional contract mowers. Mowing is prioritised to address public safety including line of sight along arterial roads, for access and fire fuel reduction. Slashing and mowing programs for fuel management generally commence at the time of grass curing or drying in early summer and again in autumn. High public use areas such as sportsgrounds and town and district parks are also given a high priority for mowing.

Thanks for the reply.

If the schedule is reviewed weekly, you may find that there are areas (like around my property) that haven’t been mowed for the last 3 scheduled visits. Grass is now past waist height, and in some areas over 4ft tall. Perhaps some more thorough reviews are necessary.

I appreciate that line of sight areas around our roads take precedence, however when the Government is pushing so hard for their “bushfire awareness” campaigns, it makes a laughing matter of their own competence that they, themselves, can’t put their own ideas into practice.

There are clearly many areas in desperate need of mowing, so would it be too difficult to hire some extra resources to manage the demand?

TAMSMediaRoom said :

The ACT Government is responsible for mowing 4,500 hectares of irrigated and non-irrigated grass in urban open space and at the urban edge. The mowing schedule, which is available on the TAMS website at http://www.tams.act.gov.au, is in place to sustainably manage public open spaces. Due to the scale and diversity of mowing requirements, the mowing program is reviewed weekly to ensure the most efficient use of resources across Canberra.

The ACT Government has a base mowing fleet comprising 80 internal ride on mowers which are supported throughout the mowing season by additional contract mowers. Mowing is prioritised to address public safety including line of sight along arterial roads, for access and fire fuel reduction. Slashing and mowing programs for fuel management generally commence at the time of grass curing or drying in early summer and again in autumn. High public use areas such as sportsgrounds and town and district parks are also given a high priority for mowing.

Thanks for the interesting response.

When do you think some of the high visibility areas will get mowed? Has the ACT goverment considered leaving it another week or two and then turning the grass into hay to be sold?

The ACT Government is responsible for mowing 4,500 hectares of irrigated and non-irrigated grass in urban open space and at the urban edge. The mowing schedule, which is available on the TAMS website at http://www.tams.act.gov.au, is in place to sustainably manage public open spaces. Due to the scale and diversity of mowing requirements, the mowing program is reviewed weekly to ensure the most efficient use of resources across Canberra.

The ACT Government has a base mowing fleet comprising 80 internal ride on mowers which are supported throughout the mowing season by additional contract mowers. Mowing is prioritised to address public safety including line of sight along arterial roads, for access and fire fuel reduction. Slashing and mowing programs for fuel management generally commence at the time of grass curing or drying in early summer and again in autumn. High public use areas such as sportsgrounds and town and district parks are also given a high priority for mowing.

I’ve heard that the Mr Rattenbury is also concerned about the length of the grass around Canberra and is considering a putting mower blades on the light rail…

Sandman said :

Here’s another idea. Most houses have a mower. Get out there and lend a hand. I do a lot of the bits in my nieghbourhood when they start looking a bit long.

So if it’s so easy, why can’t our glorious Government work it out? They could get a fleet of contractors with whipper-snippers (only $200) to fill in any gaps.

A lot of homes (mine included) don’t own mowers. We don’t have lawn, thus don’t need them. I actually wouldn’t mind doing the grass around my place myself – if the Government could help out with some financial/time assistance. Perhaps more residents would be willing to do the same if the Government treated us like a community and not just cash donors.

Sandman said :

Considering the cost of those machines (think mid sized car with a few options added) it’s not really feasible to have a fleet of “part-time contractors” on standby in case it rains and the grass shoots up.

Here’s another idea. Most houses have a mower. Get out there and lend a hand. I do a lot of the bits in my neighbourhood when they start looking a bit long.

I don’t think McCabe’s Nannies would allow that.
For a start you would have to wear a visibility vest, steel toe boots, safety glasses and have a union ticket.
This is Caberra, not Pleasantville.

Considering the cost of those machines (think mid sized car with a few options added) it’s not really feasible to have a fleet of “part-time contractors” on standby in case it rains and the grass shoots up.

Here’s another idea. Most houses have a mower. Get out there and lend a hand. I do a lot of the bits in my nieghbourhood when they start looking a bit long.

Its grass. It needs to be mown. Every year it grows more approaching summer and when it rains. Its not rocket science. But every year, the same thing happens re a lack of mowing. It’s like groundhog day.

Solution : Have a number of additional grass cutting contractors available at casual rates (which will be higher than standard) available for the 1st few months of the growing season. Engage them as/when needed. Its not that hard is it ? What else is the ACT Gov’t going to spend my up to trippled Annual Rates on ? At least keep the blasted place mown will you !

If the ACT Govt can not fund and contract manage a service as basic as grass mowing, what hope is there for the Light Rail ?

I notice that the (ACT) Chief Ministers Media Team contributed in another discussion on RiotAct very recently. Maybe they can explain ?

fabforty said :

chewy14 said :

I know right?
I mean why can’t they predict rainfall, weather and growing seasons so they can just quadruple their workforce after some spring rain and then fire them a week later when a heatwave hits and the grass dies off?

They should buy at least 10 times as many large mowers as necessary just in case they need them.

The arrival of Spring is pretty common knowledge.

Which is why they factor it into the mowing schedules. Doesn’t mean they’re going to mow each open space every week, its simply too expensive.

Our overlords on London Circuit have choices every day.

Option 1. Deal with the complaint by Mrs Smith about the lack of mowing on Jones St.

Option 2. Talk multi-million dollar plans and initiatives with corporate high-flyers and real politicians – travel, glad-handling, networking etc; not to mention the delicious prospect of ‘making their mark’ with other people’s (taxpayers) money.

We elect them to do option 1. They of course, being human, prefer option 2.

The only remarkable thing is that we keep re-electing them.

dungfungus said :

MissChief said :

This is why I can’t understanding how we can justify light rail when we can’t afford to mow, sweep and maintain the infrastructure we already have.

In Tuggeranong paths are weedy and crumbling away, gutters are full of leaves branches and rubbish, drains have weeds and sometimes trees growing out of them and everywhere painted surfaces are now raw to the elements and rusting away.

Civic is just as bad, has anyone walked around the old Melbourne and Sydney buildings lately? Broken tiles, pealing paint, filthy surfaces. The state of the footpaths in the interchange make me want to avoid that area altogether.

The Government really needs to show they can look after what they have, before they go buying themselves a new toy.

These are the questions we should be bombarding our elected MLAs with right now!
(refer post #1)

So, you expct Canberrians, who voted for a party/parties that said they would build a light rail, that would up to tripple our Annual Rates, etc, to bombard the MLAs they elected about their spending priorities, grass cutting, Mr Fluffy v Light Rail, spending $ on Maintenance in Civic and in the suburbs, etc ? You have bno hope. Only people power can stop what this Labor/Greens ACT Govt is doing and to readjust their spending priorities.

Personally, given voting at the last ACT election, I can not see that happening. We have the Gov’t we voted for and so deserve, I’m afraid.

MissChief said :

This is why I can’t understanding how we can justify light rail when we can’t afford to mow, sweep and maintain the infrastructure we already have.

In Tuggeranong paths are weedy and crumbling away, gutters are full of leaves branches and rubbish, drains have weeds and sometimes trees growing out of them and everywhere painted surfaces are now raw to the elements and rusting away.

Civic is just as bad, has anyone walked around the old Melbourne and Sydney buildings lately? Broken tiles, pealing paint, filthy surfaces. The state of the footpaths in the interchange make me want to avoid that area altogether.

The Government really needs to show they can look after what they have, before they go buying themselves a new toy.

These are the questions we should be bombarding our elected MLAs with right now!
(refer post #1)

This is why I can’t understanding how we can justify light rail when we can’t afford to mow, sweep and maintain the infrastructure we already have.

In Tuggeranong paths are weedy and crumbling away, gutters are full of leaves branches and rubbish, drains have weeds and sometimes trees growing out of them and everywhere painted surfaces are now raw to the elements and rusting away.

Civic is just as bad, has anyone walked around the old Melbourne and Sydney buildings lately? Broken tiles, pealing paint, filthy surfaces. The state of the footpaths in the interchange make me want to avoid that area altogether.

The Government really needs to show they can look after what they have, before they go buying themselves a new toy.

chewy14 said :

I know right?
I mean why can’t they predict rainfall, weather and growing seasons so they can just quadruple their workforce after some spring rain and then fire them a week later when a heatwave hits and the grass dies off?

They should buy at least 10 times as many large mowers as necessary just in case they need them.

The arrival of Spring is pretty common knowledge.

Gungahlin_Bob said :

I think everyone is spot on – something is amiss with the Mowing in the suburbs. Its the worst i have seen in 4-5 years….

I actually emailed them with photos at the start of the week, stating that last time I saw someone mowing the reserve (Hill Reserve) was about 2-3 months ago (now I will state I might be wrong by a month as I don’t hang on waiting to watch the mowers, but I wouldn’t be far wrong).

And even then, they did not do a full mow. They did a few strips (which are now over 50cm high) and the rest of the grass is over 1m tall – even the concrete paths are now in danger of being completely covered over.

I sent them photos showing a 1m ruler in the grass. The reply I got back is a link to the mowing schedule and a “rider” saying that Weather conditions may affect the schedule. So what I read from that, is if it is raining on the day that they come, then it doesn’t get done for another month. (I am pretty sure that it has not been raining that much).

I notice even the general public (and I know the neighbours aren’t) using the reserve.

I also made it very clear that there is a high risk of snakes (already been sighted elsewhere in the ACT in the last month) and a high risk of grass fire. Its Bushfire season, everyone is being asked to prepare their property by clearing refuse and the like, yet the biggest risk is the grass in the parklands.

That’s the first time I have heard that the contract has been given to one supplier….it does sound like they have taken on too much…

Anyhow, the schedule says that they are due to mow startng last Monday, and still have one more week to complete the area. So I will wait one more week….if nothing happens….I will take it further….

Regards

Gungahlin_bob

Nailed it!

miz said :

I cannot understand how the govt cannot work out that the grass will need mowing at least fortnightly during the growing seasons of spring and autumn, and sometimes also through the summer months (esp if we get a lot of rain).

I think they can work that out, because that’s what they’d base the contract price on.
The issue with cyclical maintenance of grounds is that it’s not consistent (although more predictable in CBR than other places on the planet).
The issue (as alluded to above) could be that they have a very old fashioned scheduling system, maybe paper-based?
If they miss a slot because of weather, do they just push back the whole program and pick up where they left off when the rain stops, or miss it altogether and return a month later when it’s twice the height?
There would be issues then, say for schools….where they could only cut on a certain day because of events. They might NOT be able to do a simple push-back and cut it when they could fit it in.

It’s always an issue with privatised contracts. If the work was in-house…there is no actual cost and you just instruct your workforce to get the work done, bring in a few agency workers, you absorb it and do the best you can, chaotic but you manage.
If it’s private, you have to specify it and you pay extra money. Many local governments haven’t invested in digitising datasets or included for the potential additional costs on top of the base contract cost…they don’t want to pay extra or put the work into asset management and flexible electronic scheduling and GIS systems, linked to work tasks. If they had done that, they wouldn’t have had to outsource the work !
The easiest way is just to ignore it and hope people don’t complain. As we see though, when a contractor loses control of grounds maintenance they rarely pull it back in a season, even if you ramp up the overtime to try and catch up you probably have a finite number of machines (as per the contract). Meanwhile the grass doesn’t stop growing to let you catch up.

I cannot understand how the govt cannot work out that the grass will need mowing at least fortnightly during the growing seasons of spring and autumn, and sometimes also through the summer months (esp if we get a lot of rain).
This is a basic municipal service and the govt should be embarrassed that they cannot get this right (certainly, I am regularly embarrassed because interstate friends only ever see my part of Canberra looking scruffy, from the graffiti along the main roads to the uncut grass).
Methinks the govt could do with some advice from Queanbeyan on how to manage municipal services properly.

its called self government, everything goes to the cheapest contract and the people in charge go around making decisions on important things like locking cats up and requiring you to abide by a endless stream of stupid new laws…

I think everyone is spot on – something is amiss with the Mowing in the suburbs. Its the worst i have seen in 4-5 years….

I actually emailed them with photos at the start of the week, stating that last time I saw someone mowing the reserve (Hill Reserve) was about 2-3 months ago (now I will state I might be wrong by a month as I don’t hang on waiting to watch the mowers, but I wouldn’t be far wrong).

And even then, they did not do a full mow. They did a few strips (which are now over 50cm high) and the rest of the grass is over 1m tall – even the concrete paths are now in danger of being completely covered over.

I sent them photos showing a 1m ruler in the grass. The reply I got back is a link to the mowing schedule and a “rider” saying that Weather conditions may affect the schedule. So what I read from that, is if it is raining on the day that they come, then it doesn’t get done for another month. (I am pretty sure that it has not been raining that much).

I notice even the general public (and I know the neighbours aren’t) using the reserve.

I also made it very clear that there is a high risk of snakes (already been sighted elsewhere in the ACT in the last month) and a high risk of grass fire. Its Bushfire season, everyone is being asked to prepare their property by clearing refuse and the like, yet the biggest risk is the grass in the parklands.

That’s the first time I have heard that the contract has been given to one supplier….it does sound like they have taken on too much…

Anyhow, the schedule says that they are due to mow startng last Monday, and still have one more week to complete the area. So I will wait one more week….if nothing happens….I will take it further….

Regards

Gungahlin_bob

The best thing you can do is contact TAMS via Fix My Street. We put in a request and it was actioned. The more complaints they get the more attention it will get. The feedback I received was the people doing the mowing know they need more resources, but there isn’t enough budget allocated. Good call in topic for 666 Chief Minister Feedback 🙂

magiccar9 said :

chewy14 said :

I know right?
I mean why can’t they predict rainfall, weather and growing seasons so they can just quadruple their workforce after some spring rain and then fire them a week later when a heatwave hits and the grass dies off?

They should buy at least 10 times as many large mowers as necessary just in case they need them.

I knew the rainfall and seasonal card would come up. As previously commented, we have had sporadic rain at best recently, and most of the grass has been above knee height before the rain.

This comes down to supply and demand. If I retail outlet didn’t have enough staff to cater for customers, they loose business. So why can’t the Government employ more (or more efficient) contractors to complete the necessary work.

It’s also disappointing to see that the arboretum – nothing more than a glorified park – gets more attention than local suburbs where the community actually need some attention.

The mowing schedule on the TAMS website is pure rubbish. They think that 1 days mowing (probably less than half a day when you factor in contractor smokos and breaks) can actually cover a suburb properly? By the time the come back 4 weeks later to finish the rest, the first portion has grown back.

As said before, the Government needs to pull their finger out, hire some contractors to assist the community, and stop wasting our money on trains and free WiFi.

53mm in October is sporadic rain?

The government does factor in the extra demand during the warmer months but its simply uneconomic to increase the workforce and equipment to handle the very high growing peaks during this time of year.

Have you seen some of the whining on this site about the government wasting money and putting up rates willy nilly? Hey look, you even did it in your comment.

I’m pretty sure you can handle some longer grass for a few weeks every year. If not, buy a mower and get out there and help TAMS out.

chewy14 said :

I know right?
I mean why can’t they predict rainfall, weather and growing seasons so they can just quadruple their workforce after some spring rain and then fire them a week later when a heatwave hits and the grass dies off?

They should buy at least 10 times as many large mowers as necessary just in case they need them.

I knew the rainfall and seasonal card would come up. As previously commented, we have had sporadic rain at best recently, and most of the grass has been above knee height before the rain.

This comes down to supply and demand. If I retail outlet didn’t have enough staff to cater for customers, they loose business. So why can’t the Government employ more (or more efficient) contractors to complete the necessary work.

It’s also disappointing to see that the arboretum – nothing more than a glorified park – gets more attention than local suburbs where the community actually need some attention.

The mowing schedule on the TAMS website is pure rubbish. They think that 1 days mowing (probably less than half a day when you factor in contractor smokos and breaks) can actually cover a suburb properly? By the time the come back 4 weeks later to finish the rest, the first portion has grown back.

As said before, the Government needs to pull their finger out, hire some contractors to assist the community, and stop wasting our money on trains and free WiFi.

There is a lot of grass at the arboretum – this is where the government’s mowing resources are concentrated.
https://www.facebook.com/NationalArboretumCanberra/photos/a.471657889536740.96562.442591482443381/560454543990407/
Remember, it’s “Voices in the Forest” – not “Voices in the Grass”.

With public money being spent on advertisements (which, at times, verge on the sanctimonious) reminding householders of their bushfire preparation responsibilities, it is more than annoying to see the state of many public grass/grassland areas around the town.

So far, this season, the rainfall seems to have been light and sporadic – can’t imagine what the place would be like if we’d had stretches of solid rain.

I know right?
I mean why can’t they predict rainfall, weather and growing seasons so they can just quadruple their workforce after some spring rain and then fire them a week later when a heatwave hits and the grass dies off?

They should buy at least 10 times as many large mowers as necessary just in case they need them.

The reserve across the road from our place in Higgins was mowed a couple of weeks ago. Getting rather long again as it is now well over the heads of my neighbours small yappy rats.

You can find out which suburbs will be mowed which week here http://www.tams.act.gov.au/city-services/public_areas/2014-mowing-schedules

Where are the mowers?
Try “A” for arboretum.

They don’t just outsource work these days, they offshore it. The grass in Cbr may be long enough to lose a moderate-sized child in, but in Bangalore it’s immaculate.

I’ve seen them heaps in Gungahlin, I think you can request a visit from the grass cutters via the Fix My Street website.

I noticed a couple mowing in Jons plantation. Couldn’t help but think that would be one hell of a contract, considering the size of the thing.

I heard a new contractor won the contract to mow all of Canberra. They’ve been making a mess mowing Tuggeranong roadsides for a couple of weeks.

Can only hope they do a better job of mowing than they do recycling…………..?
http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/article/8921872/the-great-aussie-recycling-rort