Farm Biosecurity

Simple biosecurity measures built into everyday practice can help protect your property from weeds, pests and diseases. Farm biosecurity is your responsibility, and that of every person visiting or working on your property.

Regardless of resource activity in your local area, landholders should have a biosecurity management plan, which would include an on-farm biosecurity plan to protect their day-to-day business operations – this should be in addition to the tenure holder’s biosecurity plan.

The Department of Agriculture and Fisheries’ Farm Biosecurity Program website contains detailed information on how to identify and understand biosecurity risks, minimise the spread of pests, weeds and diseases and what landholders can do to assist meeting their ‘general biosecurity obligation’.

Part of the Farm Biosecurity Program’s suite of tools for landholders to control biosecurity risks is the Farm Check-In app – a tool used for visitors to help identify potential biosecurity risks and minimise the spread of pests and diseases when entering an agricultural property.

To find out more about implementing a biosecurity plan for your property:

• visit the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries website;
• visit www.farmbiosecurity.com.au; or
• download the GFCQ ‘Biosecurity Checklist: A guideline for landholders and resource companies‘.

General Biosecurity Obligations

Under the Biosecurity Act 2014, all Queenslanders have a ‘general biosecurity obligation‘ to manage biosecurity risks. With respect to the onshore gas industry, this Act applies to any petroleum operators, their contractors and staff working on a property.

The Biosecurity Act 2014 ensures a consistent, modern, risk-based and less prescriptive approach to biosecurity in Queensland. The Act provides comprehensive biosecurity measures to safeguard our economy, agricultural and tourism industries, environment and way of life, from:

• pests (e.g. wild dogs and weeds)
• diseases (e.g. foot-and-mouth disease)
• contaminants (e.g. lead on grazing land).

The Act replaced many separate pieces of legislation that were previously used to manage biosecurity. Decisions made under the Act will depend on the likelihood and consequences of the risk. The Biosecurity Regulation 2016 sets out how the Act is implemented and applied.

The Land Access Code 2016, made under the Petroleum and Gas (Production and Safety) Act 2004, imposes mandatory conditions concerning the conduct of authorised activities, including petroleum authorities, on private land to ensure resource companies don’t spread weeds, pests or diseases.

For more information on these regulations, visit the GasFields Commission’s webpage which details the State’s current Regulatory Framework.

Plant Health Australia has developed a simple set of ‘guidelines for contractors‘ to ensure they don’t spread unwanted pests when working on farming properties.