Water hyacinth is native to the Amazon basin in South America and was brought to Australia in the 1890s as an ornamental plant.
The first record of water hyacinth in New South Wales (NSW) was in 1895. In 1897, the government botanist Mr J. H. Maiden noted that it had spread rapidly in the ponds in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney.
At that time, he warned that the plant should be kept away from the northern rivers where it ‘may very rapidly become a serious pest’.
Unfortunately, this warning went unheeded and by the early 1900s it had spread along the east coast of Queensland and the north-eastern regions of NSW.