{"id":493708,"date":"2026-02-21T02:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T02:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/493708\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T02:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T02:29:11","slug":"cattle-tick-outbreak-raises-questions-over-queenslands-biosecurity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/493708\/","title":{"rendered":"Cattle tick outbreak raises questions over Queensland’s biosecurity"},"content":{"rendered":"

For many Australians, cattle ticks sound like little more than a nuisance for cows.<\/p>\n

But they sit at the heart of something far more serious \u2014 a frontline test of the nation’s biosecurity system, the integrity of its food supply, and the balance between public responsibility and private cost.<\/p>\n

Beef is Australia’s single most valuable agricultural commodity, worth $17.7 billion annually, and cattle ticks are its second-costliest pest, draining an estimated $160 million from the industry each year.<\/p>\n

Behind those figures are hundreds of thousands of regional jobs, export markets built on Australia’s clean, green reputation, and millions of tonnes of beef for consumers.<\/p>\n

\"Cattle<\/p>\n

Beef is Australia’s single most valuable agricultural commodity. (ABC Rural: Brandon Long)<\/p>\n

So, when a cattle tick outbreak was recently detected on four properties near Taroom, about 465 kilometres north-west of Brisbane, it did more than trigger quarantine notices.<\/p>\n

It exposed tensions between producers, government and industry \u2014 and raised the question: how ready is Australia for a far more devastating incursion?<\/p>\n

Lessons from history<\/p>\n

Cattle ticks were first recorded in Australia in 1872, when infested stock arrived in Darwin from Indonesia.<\/p>\n

More than 150 years later, northern Australia is again watching developments there closely as Indonesia manages outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD).<\/p>\n

Australia remains free of FMD, but it’s estimated an incursion would cost the beef industry up to $80 billion in lost revenue.<\/p>\n

But there’s another border, one inside the country, that cattle industry veterans say has raised uncomfortable questions about preparedness.<\/p>\n

Known as the tick line, an invisible boundary separating tick-infested areas of north-eastern Australia from the tick-free south-west.<\/p>\n

Former government stock inspector Doug Stuart said the outbreak at Taroom, on the “clean” side of the line, exposed weaknesses in the current system.<\/p>\n

“It’s definitely very concerning,” Mr Stuart said.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Doug Stuart was a government stock inspector from 1983 to 2004, before moving into the private sector. (ABC News: Nathan Morris)<\/p>\n

Of particular concern to Mr Stuart was the Department of Primary Industries’s decision not to publicly identify affected properties, citing privacy legislation.<\/p>\n

Now working as an independent inspector, he described the policy as “absolute madness”, questioning how authorities would respond in the event of a more serious threat.<\/p>\n

“Wind it forward and say, ‘Well, I’ve got foot and mouth. What’s going to happen then?'” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Stuart said in the past, inspectors immediately alerted neighbouring landholders and arranged inspections when an outbreak was detected.<\/p>\n

Without early warnings, he said, containment becomes far more difficult.<\/p>\n

At a recent information session at Taroom, DPI project officer Jed Taylor said the government was legally bound by privacy legislation, but nearby properties were informed by letter that there was a detection in their area.<\/p>\n

\"taroom<\/p>\n

More than 100 people attended a DPI cattle tick information session at Taroom following the outbreak. (ABC Rural: Brandon Long)<\/p>\n

A Department of Primary Industries spokesperson said it “works proactively to provide guidance and support to producers to eradicate cattle ticks from their properties”.<\/p>\n

“For emergency situations such as an FMD outbreak, Biosecurity Queensland has systems in place to effectively communicate with producers and more broadly with the wider community.”<\/p>\n

Holding the line<\/p>\n

Biosecurity has long been a political juggling act.<\/p>\n

From the mid-1990s, a series of reviews found Australia’s rigid, government-led quarantine system was becoming too costly and inflexible.<\/p>\n

In response, governments shifted toward a “shared responsibility” model \u2014 spreading costs and compliance across industry and producers.<\/p>\n

But producers at the information session expressed concerns the Taroom outbreak showed the model was strained under pressure.<\/p>\n

At stake is confidence in the line, which runs roughly from Broome in Western Australia across the north to Mount Isa in Queensland, then south of Toowoomba.<\/p>\n

Cattle crossing from infested zones must be inspected and treated to prevent the spread of ticks, which can weaken or kill stock and transmit tick fever.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The tick line in Queensland. (Supplied: Queensland government)<\/p>\n

For decades, that protection relied heavily on government-run clearing dips.<\/p>\n

Over time, as reforms were enacted and budgets tightened, Queensland moved toward private, third-party inspections, on-farm clearances and saleyard checks.<\/p>\n

Many government dips closed.<\/p>\n

Today, when a property is declared infested, strict movement controls and costly eradication programs can follow \u2014 often borne by the receiving producer.<\/p>\n

Mr Stuart said the shift was also driven by chronic staff shortages and pressure from industry groups to allow on-farm clearing, to ease the burden on producers.<\/p>\n

A system under strain<\/p>\n

But the modern framework has created new tensions.<\/p>\n

Livestock agents can now be accredited tick inspectors \u2014 meaning the same person may certify cattle as tick-free and then sell them on commission.<\/p>\n

Taroom cattle trader Olivia Martin said that overlap was a structural weakness.<\/p>\n

“Having a livestock agent who is ticketing the commission is an extreme conflict of interest to then clear the cattle on farm,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Olivia Martin says conflicts of interest play a significant role in the cattle tick problem. (Supplied: Claudia Fox)<\/p>\n

She said last year, cattle she had purchased that were certified clean at Dalby saleyards later failed a repeat inspection at Taroom.<\/p>\n

President of industry group AgForce Shane McCarthy described the outbreak as “a bit of a failure of the system”, arguing that stronger education for producers and more frontline biosecurity staff were needed.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Shane McCarthy is calling for increased producer education and a stronger presence of DPI staff in the field. (ABC Rural: Brandon Long)<\/p>\n

Some producers are calling for a return to government-run dips \u2014 a harder line, clearer accountability, less room for error.<\/p>\n

Others, including Mr Stuart, said that was highly unlikely.<\/p>\n

“My guess is that they’re not going to turn the clock back, although that might go some way in alleviating the problem,” he said.<\/p>\n

Instead, he argued, the answer lay in more education and oversight of third-party certifiers, along with more “on the ground” DPI assistance for affected producers.<\/p>\n

“Currently, it’s every man for himself,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For many Australians, cattle ticks sound like little more than a nuisance for cows. But they sit at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,9326,99,13331,39040,240209,249055],"class_list":{"0":"post-493708","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-biosecurity","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-cattle","13":"tag-fmd","14":"tag-taroom","15":"tag-tick"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}