Vow to push on in fly war

TASMANIA’S latest fruit fly detection in an already infected area around George Town this week will not jeopardise the state’s efforts to eradicate the pest, inspectors say.

Biosecurity Tasmania general manager Lloyd Klumpp said further fruit fly detections inside a 1.5km zone surrounding infected properties, had been expected.

Tasmania’s other fruit fly control zone is around the Devonport area.

His comments come after fruit growers yesterday said they were losing trust in the current fruit fly fumigation system and called on the State Government to fix it.

Fruit Growers Tasmania’s Nic Hansen said the fruit fly outbreak’s cost to growers had so far been hard to gauge.

“Because a lot of the growers within the control area are still able to sell their produce to markets within Tasmania and also on mainland Australia,” Mr Hansen said.

Primary Industries and Water Minister Sarah Courtney said about 100 departmental staff were involved in baiting, spraying, trapping, inspecting, monitoring and planning activities in the control zones.

“It is important to recognise that no fruit flies have been detected outside of the two control areas. Currently there are more than 1000 fruit fly traps being monitored all around Tasmania, with many around Hobart,” Ms Courtney said.

“I have written to and also spoken with the Victorian Minister for Agriculture about the most recent incident [in Tasmania] involving a grapefruit treated in Victoria.”