QUARANTINE officers are doing everything within their power to protect the Far North from an amphibian worse than the cane toad.
But while the black-spined toad is currently being kept at bay, international travellers are being asked to help out on the frontline of defence.
The black-spined toad is one of the region’s most unwanted pests, the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service said.
Like the cane toad, the South-East Asian toad has no natural predators.
However, it exhibits an uncanny ability to adapt to colder climates, making it a far more formidable pest than the cane toad.
AQIS northern region scientific manager James Walker said at least 20 toads had been caught in Far North Queensland within the past decade, most of them located onboard ships.
Two black-spined toads were recently spotted in the hold of freighter ship the Territory Trader, which regularly travels between Cairns and West Papua.
While AQIS officers working together with ports staff and shipping companies had so far helped keep the toads at bay, Mr Walker said there were simple tasks people returning to Australia from Indonesia and South-East Asia could help out with, such as checking shoes and luggage before packing.
“Often when we’re travelling we’ll leave bags open and we’ll be very haphazard in how we pack a bag, shoving everything back in at the last minute,” Mr Walker said.
“That’s going to increase the chances of inadvertently having a hitchhiker in your bag.”
The warning came as AQIS celebrated the official opening of its new $3.5 million facility at Cairns airport.
Named the Fitzroy Building, the facility houses eight scientists who gather plant and animal samples from the northern coasts and assess the samples’ threat to
biosecurity.
As the wet season approaches, AQIS and the Northern Australia Quarantine Strategy are increasing their defence against unwanted biosecurity threats.