Are you bringing a pot plant from Queensland to NSW? You could be risking a million-dollar fine

People who breach rules designed to stop the incursion of invasive fire ants into NSW from Queensland are being warned they could face fines of more than $2 million.

The NSW government last month introduced movement restrictions on high-risk materials after the dangerous pest was found about 5 kilometres north of the Queensland and NSW border, at Tallebudgera.

NSW Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty today warned that people who breach the control order may face court-imposed fines of up to $1.1 million or three years imprisonment for individuals, or $2.2 million for corporations.

“We want to make sure people can still do business but we are very serious about keeping these ants out of NSW,” she said.

The control order prevents high-risk materials such as mulch, woodchip, soil, compost, sand, gravel, baled hay, and turf being moved from within a five-kilometre radius of a site where fire ants were found unless inspected and issued with a certificate by the Queensland Agriculture Department.

“Businesses do need to understand the rules in relation to that,” Ms Moriarty said.

“But we also want people who might be moving house and bringing pot plants [to be aware].

“These ants can be in small packages as well as large packages, and we want people to understand how serious this is and work with us to make sure these ants don’t get transferred accidentally.”

Biosecurity ramps up

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Stephen Hegarty said officers involved in a cross-border task force had been undertaking training and education campaigns, but would move to enforcement if necessary.

“We’ll be using automatic number plate recognition systems and different types of technology to make sure that we can monitor movements between Queensland and NSW,” he said.

“So if you come from the declared area, it’s very important that you know what your obligations are.”

Paws on the job

Among those taking on the task of detecting and eradicating fire ants is trained detection dog Jet.

Jet’s handler Craig Faulkner said detection dogs would be trained to recognise the scent of fire ants in a process that could take up to six weeks.

“He will be part of the team that goes out to investigate possible incursions of fire ants and search an area to help prove presence or absence,” he said.

The eight-year-old springer spaniel had previously been used to detect koalas, foxes, ferals cats and yellow crazy ants; another invasive and dangerous ant species that previously posed a risk to northern NSW.

“Because he was a yellow crazy ant dog, he was a great candidate for the fire ants and he’s a really experienced detection dog,” Mr Faulkner said.