Olive seedlings on sale at Blackwood Coles store

A pest plant, which Mitcham Council spends more than $500,000 a year to destroy, is on sale at a Blackwood supermarket. The council will write to Blackwood Coles asking it to stop selling potted olive plants, describing them as an environmental pest, a bushfire hazard and “extremely inappropriate”. It will also write to the State Government asking it to outlaw the sale of olive seedlings in SA “to provide long term reduction of bushfire hazards”. But Coles says it has no intention of taking the 20cm-30cm sevillano olive seedlings off the shelves of its Main Rd store, saying they are part of a “one-off offer” to its customers.