Funding has been welcomed by regional groups who work in awareness and education on reducing the impact of Queensland Fruit Fly (QFF) throughout the Yarra Valley, Goulburn Murray and Sunraysia.
The funding, which has been confirmed up until 2025 will be used to train community groups, nurseries and rural supply stores with skills to identify risks and implement control strategies.
Goulburn Murray Valley fruit fly area wide management program coordinator Ross Abberfield said the program has had an huge impact and more than 30,000 participants have been educated about the dangers of fruit fly through schools, workshops and events.
"The program has generated great public interest and now has a community volunteer base of approximately 5000 people who donate their own time to help prevent and manage fruit fly," Mr Abberfield said.
Mr Abberfield also said more than 108,000 fruit trees have also been removed so far in his region, which represented a significant unmanaged fruit fly habitat and that there was a reduction of 60 per cent in QFF trapping numbers across the Goulburn Murray Valley region between 2017 and 2019.
"In Cobram, where the Sterile Insect Technique release trial was being conducted, fruit fly trap numbers reduced by 83 per cent.
He said his program had been independently assessed by experts and was "recognised as the most effective fruit fly area wide management program in Australia"
It had won the 2022 Hort Connections National Award for Excellence and the 2021 National Biosecurity Award, among others.
"I think the results speak for themselves," Mr Abberfield said.
Agribusiness Yarra Valley QFF regional coordinator Bronwyn Koll said management of the fruit fly was still a new concept in her region "as many have not yet experienced QFF in their crop or in traps on their property."
There were benefits from programs in her region where approved businesses traded fruit proven to be free of QFF, but there still was "a huge learning curve in the shifting from 'fruit fly free' to the 'management of QFF' for our fruit growers, given the QFF detections in the last few summers."
"At this stage, land managers and fruit businesses do rely on the area wide surveillance program, that provides early warning to growers, and encourages a rapid response to keep the spread of QFF at each detection site to a minimum," Ms Koll said.
But she said more land managers were also installing surveillance traps than in 2017 when the program started,
"Even though there is more awareness work to do, we are in a good place with many Yarra Valley residents aware of the risks and response required," she said.
"Resident's feedback indicates they would prefer to not have to use exclusion netting - so it reinforced the effort required in prevention of the pest establishing in the region."
Both Mr Abberfield and Ms Koll said the funding would help monitor fruit fly populations, resource more volunteers and continue education programs in their respective regions.
Ms Koll said the management of QFF needed an area wide management strategy applied to succeed at reducing pest numbers and collaborating with other regions "with the aim of increased participation in QFF awareness."
Other fruit fly management measures required under the government funding include regulation and research.
"We look forward to seeing more home gardeners skilled up to tackle Queensland fruit fly on their own properties and supporting fruit growers to manage the pest in the face of a changing climate," Agriculture Minister Gayle Tierney said.
