Drooping cassinia

I have found a few drooping cassinia on our block.  It took me a while to identify it.  As I was looking for information of this plant I came across a strange newspaper article calling it a weed!  How can something that belongs, and has longer than farms and Europeans have been here, a weed?  I can understand the fear of fire risk, it would pose a bit of a problem but so would a lot of introduced plants.

From what I have read, and that is not a lot as yet, the drooping cassinia, is the beginning of the replenishing of soil that has been sucked of all nutrients by colonising spent farmland and roadsides.  What is more exciting is that as it grows, the plant falls apart, landing onto the ground, sinking back into the soil.  This area then becomes the nursery for new species.

I will be leaving mine where it is as I understand it to be telling me that the soil on our land needs replenishing.  I would like to cut it back at certain times of the year so that it will not scare the neighbours with its fire prone bushiness and use the cuttings as a mulch for the ground.  I may experiment with fabric dyeing as it is aromatic, and I suspect that it will work, at least on silk.

Cassinia arcuata, drooping cassinia