Has the WA Labor Government fumbled the ball on the biggest environmental threat in WA’s recent history? This question is now on the minds of everyone concerned about our urban tree canopy, our orchards, our wetlands, and our native bush vegetation. It is anyone’s guess when it arrived, but probably a year or two before it was detected in 2021. A tiny, inconspicuous, but voracious tree borer, named the polyphagous shot-hole borer, was accidentally introduced into WA.
It is also a guess about how it arrived but its first identified location in Fremantle points to the seaport as the likely entry point. Unfortunately, this borer has a voracious appetite for dozens of tree species and will harm many more species where its infestation reaches a critical level. Anyone who has flown into Perth airport, or driven across the border at Eucla or Kununurra, knows keeping WA free of pests and diseases is a big issue.
That work is largely through the efforts of our quarantine offices, who have been successful in keeping the State relatively free of imported pests and diseases. But we live in an international age where thousands of tonnes of timber material are imported each year and that comes with risk. What is clear is the polyphagous shot-hole borer has hitched a ride to WA.
Neil Thomson That genie is now out of the bottle and has been marching through the suburbs with little fanfare — until now. It’s the State Labor Government’s job to put the genie back into the bottle and s.