Our recent biosecurity mistakes

Our Work  |  Biosecurity

Australia is far from being a clean, green country when looking at our record of keeping our native wildlife safe from invasive species from beyond Australia. In 1999, the book Feral Future documented over two hundred years of the deliberate and accidental introduction of invasive species. However our track-record since then remains poor.

Here we document the major failings in keeping new species from establishing in the wild.

Myrtle rust - a disease of one of Australia's largest plant families.

Myrtle rust – a disease of one of Australia’s largest plant families.

Myrtle rust

A deadly fungus first found in 2010 in a NSW plant nursery now infecting hundreds of Myrtaceae species (our dominant plant family), including several threatened species.

Detected: 2010: Gosford, NSW

Asian black-spined toad

Found this year on Melbourne’s outskirts and likely to have similar impacts to the cane toad but with the capacity to inhabit cooler areas. Not yet known if established.

Detected: 2014: Sunbury, Victoria

Red imported fire ant

One of the world’s worst invasive species with an an intense sting that kills small mammals, birds and reptiles. We have already spent over $410m since 2001 trying to eradicate it yet it continues to arrive through our ports.

Detected: 2001: Brisbane, Queensland; 2014: Gladstone, Queensland

Mexican feather grass for sale on eBay in July 2014

Mexican feather grass for sale on eBay in July 2014

Mexican feather grass (Nassella tenuissima):

A highly invasive ornamental grass that has the potential to dominate large areas of woodlands and grasslands. Despite it being illegal, on-line traders are selling it.

Detected: 2004 ???; 2008: NSW, Vic, ACT

Asian honeybee

Competes with native bees and displaces hollow-nesting birds and mammals.

Smooth newt. Photo: Todd Pierson

Smooth newt (Lissotriton vulgaris). Photo: Todd Pierson

Detected: 2007: Cairns, Queensland

Smooth newt

The smooth newt preys on and competes with native frogs, fish and other species. Its skin is toxic to predators.

Detected: 2013, Melbourne

Pigeon paramyxovirus

A virus that could infect a wide range of native bird species with a high rate of mortality.

Detected: 2001: Victoria

Yellow crazy ant

Dominates areas, displaces native ants & kills small animals. (Ecosystem meltdown on Christmas Island.)

Detected: 1940 (approx): Christmas Island; 2001: Cairns, Queensland: 2001; 2001-present: Other areas of Queensland and NSW including Cairns, Townsville, Hervey Bay, Caboolture and Brisbane

Koster’s curse (Clidemia hirta)

A highly invasive tropical shrub that smothers native vegetation and is a prolific seeder.

Detected: 2001: Queensland

Electric ant

Dominates areas, displaces native ants & kills small animals.

Detected: 2006: Queensland

 

Dear Project Team,

[YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.] 

I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.

The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.

The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.

This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.

Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.

Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.

Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.

I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.

Kind regards,
[Your name]
[Your email address]
[Your postcode]


Dear Project Team,

[YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.] 

I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.

The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.

The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.

This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.

Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.

Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.

Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.

I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.

Kind regards,
[Your name]
[Your email address]
[Your postcode]