Residents in a swathe of suburbs in Perth’s south are being urged to remove all fruit and vegetables from their gardens following the detection of the Queensland fruit fly.
A quarantine area has been declared after the Qfly was detected in Willagee and Palmyra as authorities move swiftly to stop the spread of the invasive pest, which could seriously impact Western Australia’s horticulture industries.
Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) Chief Plant Biosecurity Officer Vincent Lanoiselet said people in the red zone of the quarantine area must act quickly to treat, eat or destroy all fruit and vegetables from their gardens.
Suburbs affected are included on an interactive map on the DPIRD website, stretching from Bicton in the north, Hilton and East Fremantle in the west, Booragoon and Bull Creek in the east and Coolbellup in the south.
Other suburbs included in the red zone are Melville, Myaree, North Lake, Kardinya, Samson, Winthrop, Murdoch, Bateman, O’Connor and Attadale.
The red zone encompasses several suburbs including Melvile, Myaree, North Lake, Coolbellup, Kardinya, Samson and Hilton. (Supplied: DPIRD)
The Qfly is considered one of the world’s worst fruit pests, attacking a wide range of fruits, vegetables and even ornamental plants.
The destructive pest infests both indigenous and introduced fruits including apple, avocado, capsicum, tomato, chilli, kiwifruit, mango, nectarine, papaya, passionfruit and peach.
Dr Lanoiselet told ABC Radio Perth residents in the red zone must remove all fruit and vegetables, regardless of maturity, from Qfly host plants, as well as fallen fruit.
He said people could eat their homegrown produce if it was ripe, or could treat it by cooking, freezing or solarising it by securing it in a black plastic bag and placing it on a hard surface in direct sunlight for more than seven days.
Vincent Lanoiselet says the Qfly poses a significant threat to the state’s horticulture industries and home-grown produce. (ABC News: Nicolas Perpitch)
Only treated fruit can be moved within or outside of the red zone.
“For anyone living within the red zone, it is very important to not move any fruit within the zone or outside of the zone,” Dr Lanoiselet said.
Fruit and vegetables not consumed or treated should be disposed of by securing them in a plastic bag and placing them in the general waste bin.
In addition to the red zone, the quarantine area includes an orange zone which encompasses suburbs within a 15 kilometre radius of the initial detections.
Residents and businesses in the orange zone need to adhere to strict requirements around the movement of fruit and vegetables. (Supplied: DPIRD)
Fruit and vegetables can move within the orange zone and to the red zone as long as the department’s requirements are adhered to, which includes securely covering it.
‘Fly poses ‘very significant’ threat
Dr Lanoiselet said the Qfly posed a “very significant” threat to more than 300 types of fruit and vegetables, and therefore could have a devastating impact on the state’s horticulture industry .
“The Queensland fruit fly is a very significant pest … [which is] present in other jurisdictions such as the NT, Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria and it’s a pest we really don’t want in WA.”
Dr Lanoiselet said keeping the Qfly out of WA would help growers continue to export produce such as avocados to Japan and strawberries to Thailand.
Dr Lanoiselet said the pest was detected by the department’s surveillance program, which included more than 2,000 fruit fly traps in the metropolitan area.
Several ABC Radio Perth listeners texted in questions for horticulturalist Sabrina Hahn on Tuesday afternoon, with many wondering whether they needed to rip out their plants if they were in the red zone.
“No don’t pull your plants out, don’t pull the flowers off, you just need to get rid of the fruit,” Ms Hahn assured them.
The Qfly has been has eradicated from the Perth metropolitan area nine times since 1989, most recently in Bayswater and Belmont in 2023, Dalkeith, Claremont and Nedlands in 2020 and Coolbellup in 2021.
At the time, the government said the 2021 eradication campaign had saved the state’s horticulture industry and economy an estimated $38 million annually in lost production and market access.
