Hunter Land Management was contracted by Maitland City Council to control African Olives in a range of areas, including High Street, Riley Street, Melbourne Street, Cessnock Road and Mount Dee Road.

African Olives originated from South Africa, African Olive is a small evergreen tree 2-15m high. Often grown as a garden ornamental and as a hedge, it is now a major environmental weed particularly on clay soils.

Controls may include manual and chemical works. Appropriate manual works involve small seedlings being removed by hand, with mature trees being cut and painted or stem scraped and painted using undiluted herbicide.HLM's works involved removing African Olives utilising chainsaws, loppers and running trunks/branches through a chipper attached to a tractor. With trees being cut to stump, stumps were painted with herbicide to stop redevelopment and maintain overall control on the weed species.

As evident in the Maitland City Council region vast majorities of African Olives thrive in the area, mainly along fencelines and roadsides. With projects such as the one above eventual control on the environmental weed's dispersion in the area will increase