Fonzie Kelly aka ‘The Fonz’

Fonz is a four-year-old German Shepherd weed detector dog from Garsorva Working Line German Shepherd Dogs. 

From 8 weeks of age Fonz commenced his weed detection training starting with the incredibly invasive, yet very challenging grass, serrated tussock. Fonz and his handler, Melanie Kelly, were trained and mentored by the internationally renowned conservation dog trainer Steve Austin. 

Fonz has been helping landowners, weed officers and natural resource management professionals to find serrated tussock in paddocks, bushland and even urban backyards along the Tasmanian east coast. In 2019 Fonz was trained to detect another cryptic and problematic weed, orange hawkweed. Fonz is helping our team detect this weed in Tasmania’s alpine environments. We are so excited to have Fonz join our team!