Mr MITCHELL - 1999-04-28
My question relates to a near environmental disaster we had in the mid 1990’s. A number of cane toads escaped from a teacher’s grasp here in Darwin at one of the high schools …
A member: It’s sitting over there now.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr MITCHELL: It’s probably related or identified to it.
But, anyway, at that time all hands were on deck. Hundreds of people were brought out, and even a bounty put on the cane toads. We do know that this march has come from Queensland quite rapidly over the last 20-odd years and only recently I believe a couple were found near Larrimah.
Mr Bailey interjecting.
Mr MITCHELL: It was probably you who lost them.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr MITCHELL: Can the minister please tell us what Territorians, particularly up here in the Top End, can expect from this disaster.
ANSWER
Sadly, the Territory is being colonised at a rather rapid rate by cane toads. I wish to provide information to Territory residents about cane toads, and the enormous amount of work that has been done not just by the Parks and Wildlife Commission since the early 1980’s but also the federal government, CSIRO and other agencies, to try and find a way to stop cane toads, to find a biological control. Unfortunately, it has not been successful.
Substantial amounts of money and time have been allocated to that effort over the last nearly 20 years, and anyone who has been to Borroloola in recent times would be aware that cane toads abound there, unfortunately, and they are going to also be very common in other parts of the Territory.
In fact, I table a copy of the front page of the Centralian Advocate of Friday 23 April, where the header to the story is: ‘Gavin sets to work on his 2 whopper cane toads’, and there’s a photograph of a biologist here who found 2 cane toads just south of Larrimah this week, and that demonstrates how far they’ve marched into the Northern Territory. The map in this brochure demonstrates that in 1985, cane toads first appeared in the south-eastern Gulf area of the Northern Territory. In 1990, they were in Borroloola, in the Roper River, and in Ngukurr in 1995. In 1999, they’ve reached Larrimah and Bulman, and they are progressing, these objectionable creatures.
Whilst I won’t table this because it would be a bit hard for the Hansard staff to be able to deal with it in the future, this quite obnoxious looking creature ...
Ms Martin interjecting.
Mr REED: Well, it’s a female actually. We’re thinking of calling it Clare. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that there’s any resemblance, but certainly from the point of view of the mouth sizes, they’re about the same, I have to say, and about as much nonsense comes out of that one as comes out of this one.
But, this obnoxious creature is, unfortunately, going to become a part of Territory life. In the next few years - we expect in the next 3 to 4 years –there’s going to be cane toads in the town of Katherine, and it’s expected, by about 2010 to 2020, they’ll be a common, but rather unwelcome sight here in Darwin. Unfortunately, all the work that’s been done to control them hasn’t been successful and we’re going to have to find a way of living with them.
From the point of view of providing additional advice to Territorians about cane toads including some important information as to how to identify them and not mistake them for some native frogs, there’s some very good colour photographs on the back of this brochure to assist people with their identification. I’m sure that it will be a very useful piece of information for people in those areas towards which the cane toad marches. They have to adjust to them in times to come.
But just an insight for honourable members as to the sorts of things that can happen. It’s probably the worst example in Australia of a biological control agent that was introduced and that was in, I think, 1935. It went horribly wrong, it didn’t do what it was mean to do to - control the larvae of the cane beetle - and it has now become one of our greatest pests. From the Territory’s point of view, apart from large animals, donkeys, buffalo, etc and the feral pig, we really don’t have a lot of feral animals especially in our urban environment, even introduced bird species like say sparrows and the like with the exception of Tennant Creek, we haven’t been imposed upon by them. But we are about to experience the awfulness of the cane toad.
A member: It’s sitting over there now.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr MITCHELL: It’s probably related or identified to it.
But, anyway, at that time all hands were on deck. Hundreds of people were brought out, and even a bounty put on the cane toads. We do know that this march has come from Queensland quite rapidly over the last 20-odd years and only recently I believe a couple were found near Larrimah.
Mr Bailey interjecting.
Mr MITCHELL: It was probably you who lost them.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr MITCHELL: Can the minister please tell us what Territorians, particularly up here in the Top End, can expect from this disaster.
ANSWER
Sadly, the Territory is being colonised at a rather rapid rate by cane toads. I wish to provide information to Territory residents about cane toads, and the enormous amount of work that has been done not just by the Parks and Wildlife Commission since the early 1980’s but also the federal government, CSIRO and other agencies, to try and find a way to stop cane toads, to find a biological control. Unfortunately, it has not been successful.
Substantial amounts of money and time have been allocated to that effort over the last nearly 20 years, and anyone who has been to Borroloola in recent times would be aware that cane toads abound there, unfortunately, and they are going to also be very common in other parts of the Territory.
In fact, I table a copy of the front page of the Centralian Advocate of Friday 23 April, where the header to the story is: ‘Gavin sets to work on his 2 whopper cane toads’, and there’s a photograph of a biologist here who found 2 cane toads just south of Larrimah this week, and that demonstrates how far they’ve marched into the Northern Territory. The map in this brochure demonstrates that in 1985, cane toads first appeared in the south-eastern Gulf area of the Northern Territory. In 1990, they were in Borroloola, in the Roper River, and in Ngukurr in 1995. In 1999, they’ve reached Larrimah and Bulman, and they are progressing, these objectionable creatures.
Whilst I won’t table this because it would be a bit hard for the Hansard staff to be able to deal with it in the future, this quite obnoxious looking creature ...
Ms Martin interjecting.
Mr REED: Well, it’s a female actually. We’re thinking of calling it Clare. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that there’s any resemblance, but certainly from the point of view of the mouth sizes, they’re about the same, I have to say, and about as much nonsense comes out of that one as comes out of this one.
But, this obnoxious creature is, unfortunately, going to become a part of Territory life. In the next few years - we expect in the next 3 to 4 years –there’s going to be cane toads in the town of Katherine, and it’s expected, by about 2010 to 2020, they’ll be a common, but rather unwelcome sight here in Darwin. Unfortunately, all the work that’s been done to control them hasn’t been successful and we’re going to have to find a way of living with them.
From the point of view of providing additional advice to Territorians about cane toads including some important information as to how to identify them and not mistake them for some native frogs, there’s some very good colour photographs on the back of this brochure to assist people with their identification. I’m sure that it will be a very useful piece of information for people in those areas towards which the cane toad marches. They have to adjust to them in times to come.
But just an insight for honourable members as to the sorts of things that can happen. It’s probably the worst example in Australia of a biological control agent that was introduced and that was in, I think, 1935. It went horribly wrong, it didn’t do what it was mean to do to - control the larvae of the cane beetle - and it has now become one of our greatest pests. From the Territory’s point of view, apart from large animals, donkeys, buffalo, etc and the feral pig, we really don’t have a lot of feral animals especially in our urban environment, even introduced bird species like say sparrows and the like with the exception of Tennant Creek, we haven’t been imposed upon by them. But we are about to experience the awfulness of the cane toad.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016