Post by Wolfie on Sept 9, 2008 1:47:06 GMT -5
AUSTRALIA'S military has been blamed for introducing into East Timor the nation's worst pest - the cane toad.
The resilient and toxic toads, which have wreaked havoc across Australia, were believed to have hitched a ride on military vehicles.
Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said today he would investigate the matter further when asked about the claims during a brief visit to Darwin.
"The Australian Defence Force does have very strict quarantine controls," he said.
"I've only seen these reports very recently in the newspapers since I've been on road.
"On that basis I have not had an opportunity to seek a briefing from the Chief of the Defence Force but I will certainly do so."
Since 1999 - when the ADF first intervened in East Timor - vehicles and equipment from a variety of organisations have been transported from Australian ports to the fledgling nation.
Simplicio Barbosa of the Dili-based Care International said on ABC radio that the toads arrived with the International Force for East Timor (INTERFET).
"(There are) so many toads in East Timor, they are brought by the INTERFET," he said.
"We don't know how to get them away, how to kill them."
Since the cane toad's arrival in Australia in the 1930s, they have spread from Queensland, where they were originally introduced to kill pests in the cane fields, to northern NSW and across into the Northern Territory.
The invading frontline is less than 50km from Western Australia, having already ravaged the world heritage-listed Kakadu National Park, killing everything and anything that eats them, from crocodiles to quolls.
Toadbuster and Darwin Mayor Graham Sawyer said there was every chance the toads, which are able hitchhikers, snuck into East Timor on a piece of machinery or in a soldier's backpack.
The Northern Territory Government has built a fence at a Darwin port to stop stowaways hitching rides on barges out of the harbour.
In December 2006, one of the warty blighters was found on remote Elcho Island, off the northern Arnhem land coast. It most likely made the trip on a barge from Darwin but possibly swam the 1.5km.
Source
The resilient and toxic toads, which have wreaked havoc across Australia, were believed to have hitched a ride on military vehicles.
Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said today he would investigate the matter further when asked about the claims during a brief visit to Darwin.
"The Australian Defence Force does have very strict quarantine controls," he said.
"I've only seen these reports very recently in the newspapers since I've been on road.
"On that basis I have not had an opportunity to seek a briefing from the Chief of the Defence Force but I will certainly do so."
Since 1999 - when the ADF first intervened in East Timor - vehicles and equipment from a variety of organisations have been transported from Australian ports to the fledgling nation.
Simplicio Barbosa of the Dili-based Care International said on ABC radio that the toads arrived with the International Force for East Timor (INTERFET).
"(There are) so many toads in East Timor, they are brought by the INTERFET," he said.
"We don't know how to get them away, how to kill them."
Since the cane toad's arrival in Australia in the 1930s, they have spread from Queensland, where they were originally introduced to kill pests in the cane fields, to northern NSW and across into the Northern Territory.
The invading frontline is less than 50km from Western Australia, having already ravaged the world heritage-listed Kakadu National Park, killing everything and anything that eats them, from crocodiles to quolls.
Toadbuster and Darwin Mayor Graham Sawyer said there was every chance the toads, which are able hitchhikers, snuck into East Timor on a piece of machinery or in a soldier's backpack.
The Northern Territory Government has built a fence at a Darwin port to stop stowaways hitching rides on barges out of the harbour.
In December 2006, one of the warty blighters was found on remote Elcho Island, off the northern Arnhem land coast. It most likely made the trip on a barge from Darwin but possibly swam the 1.5km.
Source
