Plant biosecurity

The mission of Western Australia's plant biosecurity programs is to safeguard plant resources from exotic and established pests and diseases. The Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia (DAFWA) has adopted a 'biosecurity continuum' approach with pre-border, border and post-border biosecurity strategies as integral components of this approach.

The aim of DAFWA’s approach is to identify key threats to productivity, sustainability and market access and outline preventive and response strategies.

The management of biological risks to market access, product safety, quality, productivity and sustainability is a shared responsibility and can be managed together and cost-effectively by means of partnerships between industry, community and government.

DAFWA’s biosecurity policies and operations are targeted to facilitate safe trade, tourism and commodity movement whilst reducing exposure of the State's plant resources to exotic biological risks.

Articles

  • Polyphagous shot-hole borer (PSHB) Euwallacea fornicatus is a beetle native to Southeast Asia. The beetle attacks a wide range of plants by tunnelling into trunks, stems and branches.

  • Be on the lookout for the polyphagous shot-hole borer

  • Dothistroma needle blight (Dothistroma septosporum) causes needle loss, slow growth and sometimes death in many types of pine and some related conifers.

  • Banana freckle was detected in Dwarf Cavendish banana fruit in the Northern Territory in May 2022. The Northern Territory Government is responding to this new detection.

  • Myrtle rust is a serious disease that infects and kills many plants belonging to the Myrtaceae family including eucalypts, bottlebrushes, paperbarks and peppermint trees.

  • Blueberry rust is a fungal disease that affects blueberries and some relatives in the Ericaceae plant family. The disease was detected in Western Australia in April 2022.

  • Onion smut (Urocystis cepulae) is a disease of onions. This disease is absent from Western Australia.

  • Late blight (Phytophthora infestans) is considered the most devastating disease of potatoes worldwide and caused the Irish potato famine in the 1840s.

  • Onion rust (Puccinia allii) is a disease of plants in the onion family, including onions, garlic, chives, spring onions and leeks.

  • Dry rot (Eremothecium coryli) is an exotic pest to Western Australia.