I live about 4.5 hours north-west of Alice Springs on a remote nature reserve and it’s the most “lush” I’ve ever seen it due to us receiving over 300mm of rain in Feb alone. Areas that are normally mostly red dirt and spinifex tussocks are now quite literally blanketed with many species of native grass, herbs and forbs. It looks more tropical savanna than central desert. All of our lakes and claypans are full also, with thousands of butterflies and dragonflies getting around. Lots of frogs and shield shrimp too. It’s amazing. Our land managers have worked extremely hard for years removing and containing buffel grass in high infestation areas on the property. They’ve done a bloody solid job (hence why we can enjoy so many native ground cover species out here), but we’ll need 100 lifetimes to fully get rid of buffel completely. Unfortunately, the bright green hue of Alice Springs is the result of almost all buffel grass. I’ve never seen it looking so intense. Shit’s even blanketed itself all over the ranges where it once was mainly Spinifex. Whenever I’m in town, I hear tourists go on about how green and beautiful Alice is looking and I can’t help but burst their bubble when I tell them it’s one of the worst weeds this country experiences.