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Weed management in Australian rangelands encounters a wide variety of ecosystems, a diversity of plant species that are weeds from some perspective, and severe socio-economic constraints. Although this combi- nation of factors suggests that ecology could contribute vitally to the efficiency of weed management, recent pub- lished research has emphasised traditional approaches involving herbicides and biological control. However, there seems to be an increased awareness of the need to understand how and why weed invasions occur and to take genuinely strategic approaches. While several potentially important concepts and principles have emerged, most do not have a firm foun- dation in Australian rangelands research and there exists the threat that they could be canonized without an em- pirical basis. Weed management in Australian rangelands is generally decoupled from other aspects of management. Future research should centre not on spe- cific control technologies but on integrative systems that address issues of temporal and spatial variation in weed dynamics and relationships between weed communities and their ecological and economic environment. (source: summary)