Queensland will set up a horseshoe-shaped zone that dips into New South Wales for the first time to prevent the further spread of fire ants, which are now within 5.5km of the border.
The state government’s four-year plan, announced Tuesday, includes forming a 10km band around infestation zones, stretching from Moreton Bay in the south-east of Queensland, west to the Lockyer Valley, east into the Gold Coast and south to the Tweed Shire.
The program will seek to stop the spread of the invasive species by enforcing penalties for those breaching the Biosecurity Act, as well as providing four to six treatments in areas of the horseshoe zone over the next two years.
But the advocacy manager at the Invasive Species Council, Jack Gough, said the plan was “making the best of a bad lot”.
“Because the program is so underfunded [compared with] what is needed to achieve eradication, they’re basically having to make decisions about where to go and what to cut and what to focus on,” he said.
Under Queensland’s new plan, targeted treatment areas will encompass suburbs in the Gold Coast, Scenic Rim and Southern Downs local government areas.
Other Queensland areas outside the containment boundary will continue to be prioritised after detection of nests in these areas.
Those who breach the biosecurity act face penalties of up to $470,000 or three years’ imprisonment, according to Queensland’s agriculture minister, Mark Furner.
He said the compliance program showed Australian governments are serious about enforcing rules to stop the pests from multiplying.
“For businesses or persons who fail to discharge their General Biosecurity Obligation, compliance officers have powers under the Biosecurity Act to shut down worksites until a biosecurity risk is mitigated,” Furner said.
It comes after concern the fire eradication program is underfunded and reports the pests breached containment zones in south-east Queensland six times in the past six weeks.
The ants were detected at a site at Tallebudgera last week, about 5.5km from the NSW border – the farthest south they’ve been discovered in Queensland.
As a result of this detection, mulch, soil, baled hay and turf cannot be moved within a 5km radius of Tallebudgera without inspection and certification from Queensland authorities.
About 12,000 audits will be conducted a year to ensure compliance under the plan.
The NSW agriculture minister, Tara Moriarty, has said while the nest has been destroyed, residents must stay vigilant and report any fire ant sightings.
“This is the closest detection of fire ants to the NSW border since they were first detected at the Port of Brisbane in 2001, and more recently at Mermaid Waters in Queensland, 11.5 kilometres north of the border,” Moriarty said in a statement on Sunday.
Gough said fire ants were not just a Queensland problem and states had failed to work together to properly fund eradication programs.
“The government’s own 2021 review report said clearly fire ants will be worse than the cane toad, rabbits, feral cats and feral foxes combined in terms of their impact,” he said.
“We’re looking at population declines in very large percentages of mammals of our birds of our reptiles and frogs.”
But Furner said that, without the national program, fire ants would infest around 100m hectares, from Bowen Queensland’s north to Canberra in the county’s south.
“This would impact the economy by an estimated cost of $2bn per year, forever,” he said.
But the plan alone cannot kill the South American pests, Furner said.
“We need the community, industry and all levels of government to play an active role in managing fire ants on property they own or manage,” he said.
The new fire ant response plan will work alongside the Fire Ant Suppression Taskforce, which has been funded by the Queensland government with a $37.5m investment.
The taskforce will implement community self-treatment projects in Ipswich, Logan and on the Gold Coast.
