SOUTH Burnett landholders living within 20 kilometres of a government dip have been left fuming after being told they can no longer dip their cattle on-property.
This is part of an on-going battle in the region, which is on the tick-line that divides southern and western Queensland from the tick areas of the north.
Angus breeder Tony Scanlan lives in a “control” area, sitting between the tick and tick-free area, and was told out of the blue last month he could no longer dip his cattle at his property.
“We have a dip that has been used for 41 years, but because we are within 20km of the Boondooma dip, we have to take our cattle there,” he said.
This is the last straw after a battle that has raged for two decades, since the tick line moved north to its current location in 1998.
The Kingaroy Wondai Proston Tick Eradication Committee, which formed at the time, has been fighting what they see as a losing battle with the steady incursion of ticks into the tick-free zone.
The “control” area, which sits like no-man’s land between the two zones and is not under the same strict conditions as the tick-free zone, is seen as a significant part of the problem.
“My land is right in the control zone, and I am on the boundary of the tick-free zone,” Mr Scanlan said.
Despite a double-fenced boundary for a buffer zone set up in the late 90s, there have been constant tick incursions from poor management of the fencing and from cattle grazing in that zone, he said.
“There is no biosecurity control over the buffer zone and basically with those sorts of incursions, you are going to get ticks again.
“It makes it very difficult.”
Mr Scanlan signed up for a government eradication program when the tick line was moved, and by 2003 was declared tick-free, but within that control zone.
However, once the program was completed, there was no biosecurity support.
“You have trucks going through with ticky [tick-infested] cattle, and then you have people with tick-infested country in the control zone, and people shift cattle with no inspection.”
Part of the problem has been the slashing of biosecurity officers, which began under the previous Labor government and continued under the Newman government, where a further 23 per cent of Biosecurity Queensland’s workforce was cut.
“Once there was a biosecurity office in the Boondooma office, and when he was let go there was no pressure to put another person in," Mr Scanlan said.
“There has been no person on the ground who knows the area and can follow a truck and demand the paperwork.
Five years ago, one of Mr Scanlan’s blocks was reinfected and he received little support from the Department of Agriculture.
“We were told we much been infected ourselves.”
An impossibility, Mr Scanlan said, as he breeds his own cattle and only brings in bulls under strict conditions.
“It was like throwing petrol on a fire when they said that.”
The lack of action was the crux of the tick problem, Mr Scanlan said.
“We eradicated it, we don’t want to reinfect our herd and we don’t want to have chemical contamination with a 120-day withholding period.”
The department did not appear to abide by the rules set by the Stock Act and prosecute people who flouted the laws.
“If the government and department don’t get more people on the line to police this better, I feel the government will see the biggest class action.
“This tick business is costly.”
Mr Scanlan estimated it cost him one weaner per week for six weeks – before the prices rose – to cover the cost of the government eradication program, which was designed to fail.
“They say you only do it from the first spring drop, but if you go to a sale, ticks are surviving through the winter," he said.
“Every sale at Murgon and Kingaroy, you’ll find cattle and covered in ticks.
By the time it gets to October, when the program begins, ticks may already have three sets of eggs on the ground.
“There is no respect for the line. If people want to access the south, then people can clean up their cattle.
“There is no reason why cattle should be accessing class two feedlots, and there should be no access of ticky cattle through clean country to abattoirs.
“All these things were there once upon a time, but they have slipped.”
