A disease that is wreaking havoc on Queensland’s precious Bunya Pine trees has now forced the closure of a popular mountain trail in the south-east Queensland hinterland.
The microscopic water mould known as Phytophthora has been detected in the Glass House Mountains National Park.
It is listed as an environmental threat of national significance to Australia’s biodiversity, placing important plant species at risk of death or extinction.
The Department of Environment and Science has erected signs at a walking track in the Coochin Hills section of the park warning hikers it is temporarily closed due to the soil-borne organism being found nearby.
Jade King is a regular hiker in the area and said the emergence of the pathogen should sound alarm bells.
“It would be devastating … to have all of those mountains shut down,” Ms King said.
“[But] everyone’s trying to make sure that no one goes there because we don’t want this spread.
“We love our native fauna and flora, and ultimately, we don’t want it spread.”
The discovery of the invasive Phytophthora has caused the closure. (Supplied: Pauline Cato)
She said the closure signs were put up last week catching people by surprise.
“It needs to be shut down for a while to make sure that we get on top of this Phytophthora,” she said.
“I think all of us that love nature, understand that that’s a massive risk.”
Closure would protect mountains
Ecology restoration expert Spencer Shaw, who has been working with the Department of Environment in the Coochin Hills area, said the region’s mountains should be closed for environmental and cultural reasons.
Spencer Shaw says there are both ecological and cultural reasons for closing the trails. (Supplied: Spencer Shaw)
“Certainly out of respect to traditional owners, I think at the very minimum, access has to be reduced if not cease on the mountains,” Mr Shaw said.
“I think there’s good ecological reasons why we shouldn’t be walking up and down these mountains, particularly in the numbers that we are.”
Phytophthora is a group of microscopic water moulds that causes severe root rot or dieback.
Dr Carol Booth, a senior policy advisor with the Invasive Species Council of Australia, said the Phytophthora cinnamomi species placed important plant species at risk of death or extinction nationally.
“It’s probably the worst disease we have in Australia,” Dr Booth said.
“It can infect hundreds of different Australian species and can cause widespread death where it’s really bad, particularly in south-western Australia.
“It’s just devastating the impact it causes.”
The dieback “bulldozed” its way through this stand of trees on Landsborough-Maleny Road. (ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)
Dr Booth said the disease was currently in all states except for the Northern Territory and could spread by any activity that moved soil, water, or plant material.
These include bushwalking, mountain biking, four-wheel-driving, road construction, timber harvesting, mining, and feral pig incursions.
Dr Carol Booth says she is seeing more cases of Phytophthora in Queensland. (Supplied: Invasive Species Council)
“It’s really insidious. You don’t know until you’ve got it and trees start dying,” she said.
“Unfortunately in Queensland we’re seeing more and more of it.
“It has a drought-like affect. It limits the uptake of water and nutrients so plants just slowly die.”
There is no cure for the disease.
Ms Booth said the only treatment was an anti-fungicide called phosphite which boosted the natural defences of the plant to help it survive.
Tragic toll
A “heartbreaking” stand of Bunya Pine skeletons near Maleny in the Sunshine Coast hinterland is sobering evidence that Phytophthora is spreading outside national parks.
The photographer disinfected her shoes after taking this shot to avoid spreading pathogens. (ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)
Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service said it was working with Biosecurity Queensland to try to reduce the spread of the disease.
“Visitors can help reduce the risk of it spreading by adopting footwear cleaning practices before entering and leaving the park,” a spokesperson said.
Ms King said she was encouraged by how regular hikers had responded to the situation.
But she worried that visitors not familiar with the area posed the greatest risk.
“It’s more about the casual hikers who go, ‘I’ll just go do Ngungun’ or, ‘I’ll run Mount Beerwah,'” she said.
“Those people that are just coming out for the first time to have a bit of a go.
“There needs to be some awareness for them, some signage and some explanation.”
Ms King said she wanted to see footwear wash stations installed at the base of Queensland mountain trails like the ones in place at the Bunya Mountains.
“It’s all about coming clean and going clean when we enter any of the national parks,” Ms King said.
Agricultural impacts
It is not just the impact to national parks and local mountains that concerns Ms King.
The citrus farmer said the disease could be devastating for her native Australian trees and finger limes that she grows on the Sunshine Coast.
“For me in particular it’s massively a threat,” she said.
“It would be devastating. I’d lose my crop for sure.”
Jade King grows finger limes near the base of the Glass House Mountains. (ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)
The ABC has asked the Department of Environment what species of Phytophthora had been detected near Coochin Hills.
Phytophthora cinnamomi root rot is the most serious disease of avocados worldwide and is believed to have been introduced to Australia by European settlers.
Avocados Australia has been testing grafted rootstock to try to find plants resistant to the disease.
It also costs the macadamia industry millions of dollars each year.
‘Bush poos’ making situation worse
Nature lovers should come prepared to protect the forest. (Supplied: Karen Smith, Queensland government )
An experienced nurseryman, Spencer Shaw and his wife Karen organised Queensland’s first Beyond Bunya Dieback Symposium earlier this year in Maleny.
He said there were other human factors making the situation messy.
“To be honest, people are going to the toilet up on top of the mountains. People get caught out,” he said.
“So we’re seeing nutrient changes. That increase in nutrients up there is potentially making things a lot worse as well.
“There’s a whole heap of things going on which is why we’re seeing that spread of Phytophthora.”
Spencer Shaw has been working to save the critically endangered Grevillea hodgei only found in the Coochin Hills. (Supplied: Spencer Shaw)
Mr Shaw said he had done restoration work in the national park at Coochin Hills to preserve the critically endangered Grevillea hodgei also known as Coochin Hills Grevillea.
“The stakes are so high with how fragile these environments are and how rare and threatened some of these species are,” he said.
“It’s not going to take much to take them out.”
