Northern Australia Quarantine Strategy plant health surveys: over thirty years of a globally unique on- and off-shore solution to island nation biosecurity challenges

Richard I. Davis; Lynne M. Jones; Harshitsinh A. Vala; Bradley Pease; David Cann; Pere Kokoa; Francis T. Tsatsia

doi:10.1071/HR24011

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

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Northern Australia Quarantine Strategy plant health surveys: over thirty years of a globally unique on- and off-shore solution to island nation biosecurity challenges

Richard I. Davis

^A ^B ^* , Lynne M. Jones ^A , Harshitsinh A. Vala ^A , Bradley Pease ^A , David Cann ^A , Pere Kokoa ^C and Francis T. Tsatsia ^D

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Northern Australia Quarantine Strategy, Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry, GPO Box 858, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.

^B Northern Australia Quarantine Strategy (NAQS), Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Science and Surveillance Group, Biosecurity Plant and Science Services Division, 114 Catalina Crescent, Airport Business Park, Cairns Airport, Cairns, Qld 4870, Australia.

^C National Agricultural Quarantine and Inspection Authority, PO Box 741, Port Moresby, NCD, Papua New Guinea.

^D Biosecurity Solomon Islands, Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, PO Box G13, Honiara, Solomon Islands.

^* Correspondence to: richard.davis@aff.gov.au

Historical Records of Australian Science 35(2) 223-234 https://doi.org/10.1071/HR24011

Published online: 30 May 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the Australian Academy of Science. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

As the Northern Australia Quarantine Strategy (NAQS) approaches its thirty-fifth year of operations, we outline the Australian Government’s approach to address extraordinary natural and human mediated biosecurity challenges across our sparsely populated northern shores. NAQS is a concept that is unique worldwide but could be equally well applied in many other island nations dealing with similar circumstances. Key to the success of the NAQS has been long collaborations with biosecurity scientists in the neighbouring nations to the north. Some examples of how these relationships have borne fruit as we tackle regionally important plant diseases are illustrated. We also focus on how the plant pathology component of the program developed and evolved from the early 1990s to 2023.

Keywords: biosecurity threats, diagnostics, environmental health, First Nations ranger network, Indonesia, northern Australia, Papua New Guinea, plant based industries, plant health surveys, Solomon Islands, Timor Leste.

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