When & Where?:  The 12th Australian Weeds conference was held the 12th to 16th September 1999 at the Wrest Point Convention Centre in Hobart, Tasmania. 

History:  Held every three years and hosted by a one of the State member societies of the Council of Australian Weed Science Societies (CAWSS), it was last hosted in Hobart in 1970.

Host Society:  Host society for the 12th conference was the Tasmanian Weed Society (TWS).  The TWS was established in 1995.  At the CAWSS meeting held in conjunction with the 11th Australian Weeds Conference in August 1996, the TWS successfully bid as hosts for the 1999 conference initiating an intensive period of organising for the TWS Executive. 

Convenor:  Dr Alan Harradine was the convenor of the conference.

Committee: The final conference organising committee was: Convenor- Alan Harradine
Editorial-  Andrew Bishop,Mark Boersma, Chris Barnes
Sponsorship- Ian Macleod, Matt Sheriff
Field Tours-  Tim Rudman, Christian Goninon
Of course there were many others assisting throughout the process and committee expresses great thanks to them.

Secretariat:  Conference Design, Sandy Bay Road, Sandy Bay. Thanks Penny and Jill!

Attendance: The conference was attended by 292 full registrants and 25 day registrants. 

Proceedings:  Submissions of papers and posters was beyond expectation.  The final program consisted of 117 papers and 72 posters.  350 hardcopy versions of the proceedings sold out.  A CD-Rom version of the proceddings has recently been produced and is available from RG and FJ  Richardson (robfiona@pipeline.com.au)

Sponsors: Major sponsors of this event were the Grains Research & Development Corporation (GRDC) and the Horticultural Research and Development Corporation (HRDC).

Other sponsors were:

• CABI Publishing
• Dow AgroSciences (Australia) Ltd
• Dupont
• IHD
• Monsanto Australia Ltd
• National WeedBuster Week
• North Eucalypt Technologies
• NuFarm
• Serve-Ag
• Silvan Pumps & Sprayers (Aust) Pty Ltd
• Department of Primary Industries, Water, & Environment

Opening: The Conference was opened by the Governor of Tasmania, Sir Guy Green.  The Governor's speech confirmed him as an ardent Weedie!

Field Trips: Four Field trips were organised and proved popular:  Wilderness Tour, Riverways & Forests tour, Cultural Landscape Tour, Coastal Cliffs and Beach Tour.