Mulch or ‘wood product’?: Confusion over how the shot-hole borer did the Rotto swim

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Mulch or ‘wood product’?: Confusion over how the shot-hole borer did the Rotto swim

The opposition has labelled the WA government’s response to the shot-hole borer outbreak a farce while accusing agencies and ministers of shirking accountability over the failed $54 million attempt to eradicate the sesame seed-sized foreign beetle.

Deputy Nationals Leader Peter Rundle took particular issue with conflicting responses to questions in budget estimates hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday about how the borer made its way to Rottnest Island and how many trees have been infected and mulched as a result.

Pictures of the tree stumps left after tree removal due to the Polyphagous shot hole borer, on the edge of Kings Park, fronting Mounts Bay Road in Perth.

Pictures of the tree stumps left after tree removal due to the Polyphagous shot hole borer, on the edge of Kings Park, fronting Mounts Bay Road in Perth.Credit: Ross Swanborough

On Tuesday Tourism Minister Reece Whitby stated the borer made its way to the island via mulch.

“We looked at how it might have arrived on the island and suspected it came via some mulch from the mainland that was used over there,” he said.

On Wednesday Rundle pressed Minister Hannah Beazley and Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development director general Heather Brayford on Whitby’s comments.

Brayford said the borer was first detected on Rottnest Island in September 2022 and that the department still did not “have a categoric understanding of the source of the original infestation”.

“It’s likely to be through the movement of timber or wood products, but we don’t have the actual source of that,” she said.

Beazley said mulch was suspected and is a possibility, but the source hadn’t been confirmed.

“Ten trees gone on a sparsely vegetated island is a major loss, and the risk of spread is serious,” Rundle said.

Shadow Agriculture Minister Lachlan Hunter said the responses were a farce.

“No accountability. Are these agencies even talking to each other?” he said.

“This is a biosecurity failure, and the government must explain to Western Australians how it was allowed to happen.”

DPIRD chief plant biosecurity officer Vincent Lanoiselet said his agency followed world’s best scientific practice when it came to mulching infected trees.

He said mulching wood to within 2.5 centimetre chips and hot composting it at a facility in the quarantine area provided a greater than 99.9 per cent kill rate of the borer.

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Since its discovery in August 2021 in Fremantle the national response to the borer has been eradication with $54 milllion spent to date to do so.

On June 18, the morning of the WA budget, the state was alerted by the Commonwealth-run National Management Group it had decided to move to a management-style response with the spread of the tree-killing beetle too rampant in Perth.

So far, in estimates hearings, bureaucrats have revealed more than 4000 trees were felled during the eradication phase, with 2500 of those on private land.

Perth Zoo has lost 115 trees, King’s Park has lost 99 and Rottnest has lost 15.

In the Perth Hills fruit growing areas 9856 avocado trees have been inspected and Beazley said of those 266 have tested positive for the borer.

“Other fruit trees have been inspected, and their level of infection is usually less, except for in one circumstance.”

WAtoday has sought clarification from Agriculture Minister Jackie Jarvis’ office about that one circumstance, but did not receive a response before deadline.

Beazley also noted the chemical trial of borer treatment of trees announced by the City of Canning in January and said they were watching it but that no similar trial had been proven to work across the globe.

“I’m aware of the media reports that have been generated from the City of Canning, but despite significant global research, no chemical treatments have been found to be effective in eradicating shot hole borer and its symbiotic fungus anywhere in the world,” she said.

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