Program co-ordinator Ross Abberfield with prickly pear fruit beside a disused railway in Moira Shire.
The Goulburn Murray Valley Fruit Fly Area Wide Management program is seeking help from the community to locate and eradicate unmanaged feral fruit trees on public land as part of its tree removal program.
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Queensland Fruit Fly is native to Australia and was originally endemic to Queensland before becoming established in Victoria
The pest can be found thriving in unmanaged feral fruit trees situated on public land such as roadsides, nature strips, reserves, parks and community gardens, and water catchment and irrigation areas.
Program co-ordinator Ross Abberfield said that although growers could control QFF on their farms, they had no control over the insect’s populations in public land areas.
“The message we have is if the tree is not ‘managed’, it needs to be gone,” Mr Abberfield said.
“These non-native feral fruit trees growing on public land can harbour the fruit fly, and given there is 8.8 million hectares of public land in Victoria, there is a lot to look out for.”
Fruit seedlings can be introduced into public areas through weather events, and animal and human movement.
Any non-native fruit tree needs reporting, including olive trees and prickly pear cactus.
The Goulburn Valley is the largest canning pear producer in the southern hemisphere and the Murray Valley is Australia’s largest stone fruit producing regions, making it vulnerable to QFF.
“If a grower finds one fruit fly infestation, then that’s the crop gone,” Mr Abberfield said.
Between November 2023 and November 2024, the GMV Fruit Fly Area Wide Management Program has eradicated over 16,000 unmanaged fruit trees from roadsides alone.
The program seeks support from community members to help locate any feral fruit trees on public land so they can be removed.
