Well worth taking note of, zero tolarance, they are showing no mercy.
Almost $40,000 worth of fines have been handed out to motorists caught bringing fruit into South Australia in only the past few days.
Elizabeth Henson
The AdvertiserMarch 7, 20194:41pm
"Almost $40,000 in fines have been handed out to motorists caught bringing fruit into South Australia during a three-day blitz at Bordertown.The result has prompted the State Government to urge interstate visitors and those returning home to get rid of fruit before crossing the border into SA this long weekend.A roadblock set up at Bordertown from February 28 to March 2 intercepted 103 vehicles carrying fruit and issued $38,600 in fines.Of those caught, 72 were Victorian vehicles.
Primary Industries Minister Tim Whetstone described the number of motorists flouting biosecurity laws as alarming, saying they were putting our world-class horticultural industry at risk.
The quarantine on interstate fruit is intended to protect South Australias horticulture industry from the threat of fruit flies. Picture: AAP / Matt LoxtonSource:News Corp Australia
Almost one in seven vehicles stopped at a random roadblock in Bordertown last weekend were found with fruit and prohibited material, Mr Whetstone said.
In total, 124 kilograms of prohibited fruit was seized and securely disposed of by Biosecurity SA staff during last weekends roadblock.
The Government in January announced it was cracking down on motorists bringing fruit into the state, declaring those caught would not longer receive a caution but would instead be slapped with a $375 fine.
The zero tolerance policy aimed to protect SAs $1.2 billion horticulture industry and was in response to an outbreak of Queensland fruit fly in Loxton in December."
-- Edited by Santa on Thursday 7th of March 2019 05:53:07 PM
Aussie1 said
06:09 PM Mar 7, 2019
Good to hear. Double (or treble) the fines as far as I am concerned. If people are so "ignorant" these days to break the rules (law) they deserve no mercy. Plenty of warnings are out there.
Santa said
06:17 PM Mar 7, 2019
Yep, I even had a GN once boast to me they had hidden the fruit and veg under the lid of their toilet.
Yuglamron said
06:30 PM Mar 7, 2019
All well and good, But maybe the biggest culprits are our Pollies who sign up for " FREE TRADE " agreements which allow foreign imports of fruit etc into Australia.
No one seems to be taking note about the importation of Mangos from Indonesia which has our industry petrified. The cost to Australian Banana growers when imports brought a blight into Qld.
Those are only two of the items causing problems The list is getting bigger day by day and our farmers are not only losing good agricultural land to Mining and Fracking they have also to put up with foreign imports putting our produce at risk.
I do have friends up in Mackay who have spent lots of money investing in modern equipment and research for better Mangos, all at risk. So I do have an interest in their Plight.
Now we also have The Great Australian Bight open to seismic exploration for the big oil companies.
This is a page in the Australian Quarantine Service's website on pests. This page about Mango pulp Weevil.
If you do check it out you will see that it comes from the Philippines and Indonesia.
-- Edited by Yuglamron on Thursday 7th of March 2019 06:41:44 PM
Santa said
06:46 PM Mar 7, 2019
Oh dear, this was simply meant as a heads up for people traveling into SA.
Terryt said
08:09 PM Mar 7, 2019
I have concerns with this. What you can and can't bring in varies regularly. You used to be able to rock up to a checkpoint, disclose what you had and get a yeh or nay. Now at Yamba if you do this and have something prohibited your fined. It is planned to bring this in to all checkpoints. This is wrong. By the way I have no sympathy for anyone who comes in on a road without a checkpoint and ignores the signs and then gets caught at a random stop.
Cupie said
08:19 PM Mar 7, 2019
When travelling interstate I go to a fair bit of trouble to understand the various regulations. Best done at Visitor/Tourist info centres perhaps. Certainly not by listening to other nomads at sundowner time.
Thanks for the heads up on the crackdown.
What we need is far more public education on the issue.
It seems that when an election is pending the ruling party can find plenty of taxpayer cash to publicise how well they are managing the economy or whatever, but precious little is spent on real issues like this one.
I certainly agree with the aspect expressed by Yuglamron. Border Security & Free Trade agreements are a National disgrace. Take the TPP for example. A bloody disgrace & sell out to vested interests.
Oops off topic once again .. My apologies.
Kebbin said
08:22 PM Mar 7, 2019
What is wrong Terry is people that do not care about others livelihoods, up the fines so the ignorant in society get the message!
Whenarewethere said
11:04 PM Mar 7, 2019
Coming from WA into SA last year a couple of SA cars in front of us were simply waved through. They looked through our NSW car. We didn't have anything so wasn't worried. A similar situation going into WA from NT.
Also any fruit boxes they will take as well, we didn't have any of them either.
Warren-Pat_01 said
11:58 PM Mar 7, 2019
Thanks Santa for the update.
Two stories -
1. we lived at Ceduna for a number of years. In the mid 80s one of our peach trees had a dose of fruit fly. The DPI staff suggested someone threw out some infected fruit before they got to the DPI office just a km or two from home.
2. On a trip from Qld to SA to see family a few years ago, we had some fruit on board & being a bit of a scrooge we had a fruit salad snack. Well I think I had a couple too many oranges & tomatoes as I spent most of the night in the toilet at the Blanchetown CP!!
The WA crowd are generally tough with one at Eucla being likened to Hitler. They open everything in their search for contraband!
Terryt said
07:20 AM Mar 8, 2019
Re the SA reg cars being waved through at Ceduna. If you are going west of Ceduna to say Fowlers Bay you can get a pass so you don't get checked returning.
BruDi said
11:22 AM Mar 8, 2019
South Australia is a declared fruit fly free area and so this crackdown is to keep this status. Our fruit growers have access to more markets because of this crackdown. The waving through of cars at Ceduna may well be locals.
mezza56 said
12:37 PM Mar 8, 2019
When coming thru at bordertown they had a large illuminated sign warning not to bring fruit into sa, just out of BT they had a checkpoint I got pulled over and checked , we had nothing but there was a family in a vic reg vehicle pulled up and they were going thru their stuff , they had 120 oranges and a heap of other fruit they had picked in vic at a rellies prop they paid they price dearly , but they deserved it by ignoring the signs despite the warning. Very expensive fruit I heard mention while listening of over $600
-- Edited by mezza56 on Friday 8th of March 2019 12:38:47 PM
Santa said
12:56 PM Mar 8, 2019
There must be a lot of people buy fruit from roadside stalls around the Mildura area when traveling to SA, only to find they cant bring it over the border, perhaps stall holders should be required to display signs informing customers of this fact.
wasn_me said
04:29 PM Mar 8, 2019
We went through Yamba beginning of February. We were careful not to buy any fruit prior to that.
When we pulled up they checked the car thoroughly, glove box, car fridge, under everything.
When they looked in the van, there was a bowl of tomatoes sitting on the bench. They weren't
to happy about that. As they were not hidden they didn't impose a fine, just a warning.
The mind was thinking about apples. stone fruit etc. never gave the tomatoes a thought.
Magnarc said
05:19 PM Mar 8, 2019
Whilst I agree with all of the above comments had an acquaintance who was once employed at a checkpoint and he would quite cheerfully admit that he never bought fruit. Just sayin.
Cupie said
05:35 PM Mar 8, 2019
wasn_me wrote:
We went through Yamba beginning of February. We were careful not to buy any fruit prior to that.
When we pulled up they checked the car thoroughly, glove box, car fridge, under everything.
When they looked in the van, there was a bowl of tomatoes sitting on the bench. They weren't
to happy about that. As they were not hidden they didn't impose a fine, just a warning.
The mind was thinking about apples. stone fruit etc. never gave the tomatoes a thought.
Was that Yamba on north coast NSW.? No restrictions there that I'm aware of.
Hewy54 said
06:47 PM Mar 8, 2019
Cupie wrote:
Was that Yamba on north coast NSW.? No restrictions there that I'm aware of.
No, there are in fact places outside of the Eastern States. Yamba SA is the checking station just before Renmark.
Santa said
07:17 PM Mar 8, 2019
Hewy54 wrote:
Cupie wrote:
Was that Yamba on north coast NSW.? No restrictions there that I'm aware of.
No, there are in fact places outside of the Eastern States. Yamba SA is the checking station just before Renmark.
Thought the thread title may have offered a clue, perhaps not.
Cupie said
10:23 PM Mar 8, 2019
Santa wrote:
Thought the thread title may have offered a clue, perhaps not.
Thank you 'Santa' for your kind response; so much in keeping with this 'friendly forum'. Perhaps not.
My initial Google search 'Yamba - Where is' gave me pages & pages about the NSW Yamba with 6135 residents & named after an oyster like shellfish found on the local rocks. I bet that you wanted to know that. I gave up after 3 pages of relevant sites & no mention of the 'region' in SA of Yamba with a recorded population of 3, and notable for the tyre like thingo across the road & being the fruit fly inspection point. So there you go.
Well worth taking note of, zero tolarance, they are showing no mercy.
Almost $40,000 worth of fines have been handed out to motorists caught bringing fruit into South Australia in only the past few days.
Primary Industries Minister Tim Whetstone described the number of motorists flouting biosecurity laws as alarming, saying they were putting our world-class horticultural industry at risk.
The quarantine on interstate fruit is intended to protect South Australias horticulture industry from the threat of fruit flies. Picture: AAP / Matt LoxtonSource:News Corp Australia
Almost one in seven vehicles stopped at a random roadblock in Bordertown last weekend were found with fruit and prohibited material, Mr Whetstone said.
In total, 124 kilograms of prohibited fruit was seized and securely disposed of by Biosecurity SA staff during last weekends roadblock.
The Government in January announced it was cracking down on motorists bringing fruit into the state, declaring those caught would not longer receive a caution but would instead be slapped with a $375 fine.
The zero tolerance policy aimed to protect SAs $1.2 billion horticulture industry and was in response to an outbreak of Queensland fruit fly in Loxton in December."
-- Edited by Santa on Thursday 7th of March 2019 05:53:07 PM
Yep, I even had a GN once boast to me they had hidden the fruit and veg under the lid of their toilet.
All well and good, But maybe the biggest culprits are our Pollies who sign up for " FREE TRADE " agreements which allow foreign imports of fruit etc into Australia.
No one seems to be taking note about the importation of Mangos from Indonesia which has our industry petrified. The cost to Australian Banana growers when imports brought a blight into Qld.
Those are only two of the items causing problems The list is getting bigger day by day and our farmers are not only losing good agricultural land to Mining and Fracking they have also to put up with foreign imports putting our produce at risk.
I do have friends up in Mackay who have spent lots of money investing in modern equipment and research for better Mangos, all at risk. So I do have an interest in their Plight.
Now we also have The Great Australian Bight open to seismic exploration for the big oil companies.
This is a page in the Australian Quarantine Service's website on pests. This page about Mango pulp Weevil.
If you do check it out you will see that it comes from the Philippines and Indonesia.
http://www.agriculture.gov.au/biosecurity/australia/naqs/naqs-target-lists/mango-pulp-weevil
-- Edited by Yuglamron on Thursday 7th of March 2019 06:41:44 PM
Oh dear, this was simply meant as a heads up for people traveling into SA.
When travelling interstate I go to a fair bit of trouble to understand the various regulations. Best done at Visitor/Tourist info centres perhaps. Certainly not by listening to other nomads at sundowner time.
Thanks for the heads up on the crackdown.
What we need is far more public education on the issue.
It seems that when an election is pending the ruling party can find plenty of taxpayer cash to publicise how well they are managing the economy or whatever, but precious little is spent on real issues like this one.
I certainly agree with the aspect expressed by Yuglamron. Border Security & Free Trade agreements are a National disgrace. Take the TPP for example. A bloody disgrace & sell out to vested interests.
Oops off topic once again .. My apologies.
Coming from WA into SA last year a couple of SA cars in front of us were simply waved through. They looked through our NSW car. We didn't have anything so wasn't worried. A similar situation going into WA from NT.
Also any fruit boxes they will take as well, we didn't have any of them either.
Two stories -
1. we lived at Ceduna for a number of years. In the mid 80s one of our peach trees had a dose of fruit fly. The DPI staff suggested someone threw out some infected fruit before they got to the DPI office just a km or two from home.
2. On a trip from Qld to SA to see family a few years ago, we had some fruit on board & being a bit of a scrooge we had a fruit salad snack. Well I think I had a couple too many oranges & tomatoes as I spent most of the night in the toilet at the Blanchetown CP!!
The WA crowd are generally tough with one at Eucla being likened to Hitler. They open everything in their search for contraband!
South Australia is a declared fruit fly free area and so this crackdown is to keep this status. Our fruit growers have access to more markets because of this crackdown. The waving through of cars at Ceduna may well be locals.
When coming thru at bordertown they had a large illuminated sign warning not to bring fruit into sa, just out of BT they had a checkpoint I got pulled over and checked , we had nothing but there was a family in a vic reg vehicle pulled up and they were going thru their stuff , they had 120 oranges and a heap of other fruit they had picked in vic at a rellies prop they paid they price dearly , but they deserved it by ignoring the signs despite the warning. Very expensive fruit I heard mention while listening of over $600
-- Edited by mezza56 on Friday 8th of March 2019 12:38:47 PM
There must be a lot of people buy fruit from roadside stalls around the Mildura area when traveling to SA, only to find they cant bring it over the border, perhaps stall holders should be required to display signs informing customers of this fact.
We went through Yamba beginning of February. We were careful not to buy any fruit prior to that.
When we pulled up they checked the car thoroughly, glove box, car fridge, under everything.
When they looked in the van, there was a bowl of tomatoes sitting on the bench. They weren't
to happy about that. As they were not hidden they didn't impose a fine, just a warning.
The mind was thinking about apples. stone fruit etc. never gave the tomatoes a thought.
Whilst I agree with all of the above comments had an acquaintance who was once employed at a checkpoint and he would quite cheerfully admit that he never bought fruit. Just sayin.
Was that Yamba on north coast NSW.? No restrictions there that I'm aware of.
No, there are in fact places outside of the Eastern States. Yamba SA is the checking station just before Renmark.
Thought the thread title may have offered a clue, perhaps not.
Thank you 'Santa' for your kind response; so much in keeping with this 'friendly forum'. Perhaps not.
My initial Google search 'Yamba - Where is' gave me pages & pages about the NSW Yamba with 6135 residents & named after an oyster like shellfish found on the local rocks. I bet that you wanted to know that. I gave up after 3 pages of relevant sites & no mention of the 'region' in SA of Yamba with a recorded population of 3, and notable for the tyre like thingo across the road & being the fruit fly inspection point. So there you go.
I should have looked at Yamba post codes!
It comes up on this site - Gazetteer of Australia Place Name Search
There she blows - on Google Maps
Water off a ducks back Terry.
Explained that as responsible travellers, we had dumped all our fruit and veggies, in the rubbish bin at Murrayville
Just the normal, looking into the fridge, and random cupboards, from the inspector, doing his job
No different than any other border crossings, I was expecting a more thorough search
I agree with higher fines, for those people who deliberately try to hide, their few dollars worth of fresh fruit and veggies