Winners are grinners: Adrian Conti and Ross Abberfield, with the prestigious award, hope their knowledge can be used elsewhere for everyone’s benefit.
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Isabelle Harris
The GMV Fruit Fly Area Wide Management Program has won a community award as part of the Australian Biosecurity Awards.
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The Australia-wide biosecurity awards recognise groups, individuals and organisations that have shown commitment and support Australia’s biosecurity.
Community awards specifically reward those who have made significant contributions to ongoing biosecurity in the community.
Program coordinator Ross Abberfield said winning the award was “a bit like winning the grand final”.
“It doesn’t get much better than taking out a national award ... this is rather unique for a fruit fly area-wide management program to take out a national award,” he said.
“We’ve been acknowledged as a benchmark in fruit fly area management in Australia and that can be noticed by overseas countries as well.”
Adrian Conti, deputy chair of Summerfruit Australia and a fruit grower in Cobram who is part of the fruit fly program governance group, said the award showed how good the program and its community engagement had been.
“I look at the award and see the words on the bottom, which says winner and community ... that’s something we have really gained traction (with),” he said.
“From schools right through to backyard gardeners, not only the growers but for everyone that cares for what they want to grow and what they want to eat.“
“It just cements how good the program has been and how effective we’ve been ... it shows that we are a leader in this area.”
Communication: A characteristic “No Flies On Us” branded sign outside Undera Primary School, part of the program’s broad communications strategy. Photo: Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment
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The program has taken an “education-first“ approach by distributing information about fruit fly, including what it is, how to manage it and preventing infestations.
While the program does focus on Queensland fruit fly, there are multiple types that are of concern in the GMV region.
Mr Abberfield explained their “No Flies On Us” branding and trademark signs have been wildly successful with all groups, from backyard gardeners to large-scale growers.
The program also includes a tree removal program and trapping grids to prevent new breeding grounds from forming and identify hotspot areas.
In the future, Mr Abberfield said the knowledge the group had gained could be used elsewhere to help further prevent fruit fly spread and damage to crops.
“That means our message about managing fruit fly, what we’re doing through area-wide management ... we can actually use this award to share our learnings,” he said.
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