The pilot African Boxthorn biocontrol project garnered enquiries as soon as the first Expression of Interest (EOI) was distributed. The Rice Growers Association (RGA) asked to join forces with us and together we organised for 20 landholders to start the pilot program, with several more on a waiting list. Ten control kits were available in November 2022, but due to the floods distribution was delayed until December 2022.

A demonstration workshop was held at Pretty Pine on 9 December 2022 with attentive participants involved in the process. Each person took home a kit which could treat eight branches on different Boxthorn plants. To the participants' credit, they took photos before, during and six weeks after the biological control was administered and sent them in for CSIRO analysis. Although the results were not great in terms of the impact on the Boxthorn plants (with no rust seen so far), it did show how effective grassroots organisations are at organising quickly and applying local knowledge to roll out a project of state and federal significance.