Travellers to outback Western Australia in search of gold or wildflowers have been urged to consider the biosecurity risk they may pose to livestock properties.
Wildflowers are blooming in the state's Mid West, and gold prices are historically high, enticing people to travel out of the city and into outback areas.
But while tourism is a vital part of regional economies, pastoralists are pleading with visitors to help reduce their risk of spreading diseases such as foot-and-mouth-disease (FMD), which was discovered in Bali in July.
Yalgoo shire president and pastoralist Greg Payne said it was important people contacted pastoralists before entering their properties.
"If you're coming onto a pastoral lease, you need to ring the pastoralist and see if they have biosecurity measures in place that they'd like you to follow. And if that's the case, abide by those rules, work it out and work with them," he said.
Cr Payne said Yalgoo welcomed visitors but getting the balance between people wanting an experience in the bush and protecting the interests of pastoralists was difficult.
He said he regularly found people on his property without his knowledge or consent, often camping or prospecting for gold.
"Biosecurity is a huge concern, but [there's] also a safety concern for us. We've got firearms out here that we need to use and things like that, and if we don't know that someone's camped out in the bush, accidents can happen," he said.
The Shire of Yalgoo has a dedicated parcel of land on which people could go prospecting.
The balance of land access
An outbreak of FMD in Australia has been modelled to cost up to $80 billion over 10 years.
Pastoral land is Crown land owned by the WA state government and leased by pastoralists at a cost to operate livestock grazing enterprises.
Traditional owners with native title recognition are able to access Crown land, including pastoral land, to perform activities that come from traditional laws and customs.
However, most people require permission from pastoralists as leaseholders of the land to access pastoral properties.
But in WA miners and exploration companies along with prospectors holding a miner's right have some access rights to Crown land.
A miner's right costs about $30 and lasts for a person's lifetime.
There have been more than 155,000 issued in WA, 4,065 of these were issued last financial year.
Miner's rights holders are strongly encouraged to make contact with pastoralists prior to any access, with conditions such as proximity to infrastructure, however pastoralists do not have the right to refuse entry to their properties.
Up the road from Greg Payne's property, Gemma Cripps at Gabyon Station said she also had difficulty with people entering her property without requesting permission or notifying her.
"Most of the paddocks here have main road frontage, so most of the paddocks on the property have a public road running through them," she said.
"I just am not sure how you would introduce a biosecurity plan effectively when so many people can enter anywhere.
"One of the biggest issues normally is just leaving gates open. The worst case scenario is when you find the tracks of a vehicle has come to a corner in a paddock and they can't get through so they just cut the fence."
The Cripps family welcome visitors to their property through their station stay business, which allows them to regulate access.
Minister says risk is low
Agriculture Minister Alannah MacTiernan said scientific modelling showed "a very low likelihood" of FMD occurring in pastoral areas, and she did not support any calls from the pastoral industry for pastoralists to have the right to refuse access to miner's right holders.
"It's been a real issue for pastoralists that lots of people are coming through their areas, I think the prospect of FMD being carried by those people is very low but we can understand the concern that pastoralists have," she said.
"That doesn't mean that the whole industry is not affected [by an FMD outbreak], wherever it occurs it shuts down most of our export markets immediately. It has massive economic consequences for all of our livestock producers.
"I noted that there has been a suggestion that we needed to modernise the miner's right system so that we can make sure that those people that are entering onto pastoral properties are properly informed about the biosecurity risk, so I'll be talking to [Mines] Minister [Bill] Johnston about that."
Pastoralists and Graziers Association president Tony Seabrook said the size and isolation of pastoral land made it easy for people to assume it was unoccupied.
"Sometimes you'll never see the homestead, the sheds, it's very easy to assume that this isn't owned land," he said.
"But it doesn't deny the fact that people can do a lot of harm to a business operation, camping near their water point or something like that.
"And then there's a downright rowdy that just decide to load up some rifles and go out bush to have a bit of a good time, and that's the element that is a real problem."
Mr Seabrook said understanding and goodwill between pastoralists and people who wanted to access or had the right to access their properties was essential.
"If that goodwill doesn't exist, then we're going to end up with friction."
Ms MacTiernan said there was a clear response plan in place in case of a disease outbreak, and that the state was working to improve biosecurity awareness within the general public.
