DON'T GIVE FRUIT FLY A LIFT - DON'T TAKE FRUIT, VEGETABLES, PLANTS OR FLOWERS ACROSS STATE AND QUARANTINE BORDERS

Fruit and vegetable growers in Australia are under constant threat from fruit fly. This pest has the potential to destroy a fruit export industry that is worth millions of dollars each year to the Australian economy, and which underpins the economies of many regional communities.  It can also prevent home gardeners from enjoying the fruits of their labour.

To help protect fruit-growing regions in South Australia, northern Victoria and southern New South Wales, growers, industry and governments from the three states joined forces in 1994 to establish a Fruit Fly Exclusion Zone (FFEZ).  Today, growers within the Zone can access lucrative export markets that growers outside the Zone cannot because they can’t claim their produce is grown in a fruit fly free area. 

As fruit flies cannot fly very far, the primary way for fruit fly to be introduced to a fruit fly free area is by visitors unwittingly bringing infested fruit into the area.   All visitors to the Zone therefore have an important role to play in continuing to keep it a fruit fly free area.  This vital role is reinforced by legislated restrictions on the transportation of fruit and vegetables into a Fruit Fly Exclusion Zone.  Fines of up to $2500 apply to anyone found ignoring the restrictions.

PLEASE REFER TO THE FOLLOWING WEBSITES FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Traveller’s guide to Australian interstate quarantine: www.quarantinedomestic.gov.au (Ph 1800 084 881)
South Australia Plant Health and Quarantine: www.pir.sa.gov.au/fruitfly (Ph 1300 666 010)
Pest Free Area for a Greater Sunraysia: www.pestfreearea.com.au (Ph 136 186)