Our 2019 Froggatt Awards recognised outstanding achievements, including those of Milo Yeigh, who saved the NSW town of Lismore from invasion by yellow crazy ants.
Queensland’s Southern Downs Regional Council won its Froggatt Award for recognising landholders for taking action on pests and weeds and former federal agricultural minister David Littleproud for creating the country’s first ever Office of Environmental Biosecurity.
Awarded to Southern Downs Regional Council in Queensland for their pioneering and innovative Invasive Pest Control Scheme that rewards landholders for undertaking pest and weed management.
The scheme was introduced in 2017 and applies to more than 5000 rural properties in the council area.
Landholders are charged a pest levy ranging from $500 to $6000 depending on the property value. If a land owner can demonstrate they are implementing a property pest management plan and meeting their general biosecurity obligation under the Biosecurity Act, the fee is waived.
The most common pests targeted by the program include African boxthorn, blackberry, rabbits, wild dogs and velvety tree pear.
Those that don’t prepare and implement a suitable pest management plan pay the pest levy, which funds the council’s pest management program.
An independent evaluation of the scheme’s operation over the past two years found majority support for the program, a 24,000 ha reduction of areas without declared pests, a 16% increase in landholder awareness of invasive pests and a $3300 boost in spending on pest control per property.
The Invasive Pest Control Scheme assists with greater landholder engagement, increased pest control and reduced areas affected by pests. The scheme has potential for broader application across Australia.
Awarded to Milo Yeigh, who first spotted and reported seeing yellow crazy ants in Lismore, leading to their rapid eradication.
Milo, who has a keen interest in ants, discovered a yellow crazy ant infestation in Lismore’s central business district in May 2018. After reporting it to NSW’s Biosecurity Hotline, the state’s Department of Primary Industries and Local Land Services immediately carried out further surveillance and then eradication.
Milo’s ant spotting was presented with a Biosecurity Warrior award on June 2018.
The yellow crazy ant is listed among 100 of the world’s worst invasive species, and can cause serious damage to the environment, agricultural production and human amenity. They form highly cooperative super colonies and spray acid when attacking pets or native animals and birds, which may cause blindness.
A $30 million program is already underway to eradicate yellow crazy ants from the Cairns region where they threaten the Wet Tropics World Heritage rainforests.
Milo’s ant spotting and reporting demonstrates the value of citizen surveillance in preventing invasive ants such as yellow crazy ants from establishing in NSW.
Awarded to the Hon David Littleproud for the creation of the Office of Environmental Biosecurity and the appointment of Australia’s first ever Chief Environmental Biosecurity Officer, Ian Thompson.
The creation of this permanent office arose from a recommendation of the independent review of Australia’s biosecurity system, led by Wendy Craik in 2017.
The Chief Environmental Biosecurity Officer is supported by a dedicated office of four staff and oversees the delivery of an annual $825,000 project fund to drive investment in “environmental biosecurity capability and capacity”.
In its first year, the office has made significant progress on defining the pests and diseases we should be worried about, led responses to new pests and diseases entering the country, built stronger relationships with the community and provided a leadership role on environmental biosecurity at the federal level.
Improving environment biosecurity will take time and further resources given the historical origins of Australia’s modern biosecurity system founded on agricultural risks.
The award acknowledges David Littleproud’s leadership in implementing a major structural change to the federal biosecurity system to better address the risks of pests, weeds and diseases that could harm the natural environment.
In 2020 we saw some outstanding efforts from the winners of our annual Froggatt Awards.
In 2018 our Froggatt Awards went to community group Save Kosci, NSW Department of Primary Industries and Tarrangower Cactus Control Group.
In 2017 our Froggatt Awards went to the independent panel reviewing the national biosecurity system and Nic Gill, author of Animal Eco-Warriors: Humans and Animals Working Together to Protect Our Planet.
In 2016 our Froggatt Awards went to Gregory Andrews, Australia’s first Threatened Species Commissioner, SPRATS, the Sea Spurge Action Teams and Ecology Australia.
In 2015 our Froggatt Awards went to Australian Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, Barnaby Joyce, NSW red imported fire ant response and Senate Environment and Communications References Committee.
The Invasive Species Council acknowledges the Traditional Custodians throughout Australia and their connections to land and sea. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today. The Invasive Species Council supports voting ‘YES’ for a Voice to Parliament.
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.
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.