House Boat Quarantine Rules?

[Jon and Kay]

When travelling from SA to NSW by houseboat are you subject to the same quarantine laws as road users?

[BruceS]

I don't know Jon but I would assume you would be.
I know of no checking stations along the way & to be honest, very few houseboats seem to travel very far along the River.
I'd think 80% of houseboats do less than 50km a year. Most just leave them tied up and use them as shacks.
One lady not far from me has been there for 15 years and hasn't moved.
It's a bit like speeding down the highway............ it's illegal but only if you get caught is it a problem!!!
Actually the fruitfly check is only for travelling from NSW/Vic into SA.......... not the other way around.

[Kelvin12]

Bruce,

How does the lady get on for hull cleaning over that period of time. I guess fresh water there aren't to many barnacles, etc.

Dirk

[Jon and Kay]

It's a bit like speeding down the highway............ it's illegal but only if you get caught is it a problem!!!

OOh...ahh... the road safety adds aren't getting through are they?

[Wilbor]

Every K over is a killer Bruce, the govenment said so, so it must be true

[homeless]

As Bruce has stated MOST house boats only move a short distance from their original mooring. At a top speed of about 8 -10 knots it takes a long time to get somewhere so any fruit and veg would be well and truly eaten or discarded before travelling any distance.
I would consider the act of throwing away of fruit etc into the river upstream would be more of a worry.
I would be interested how many people recognise the many fruit fly areas around Australia as there are more than most people accept.
Most accept the one at WA/SA border and the one at Broken Hill and Morgan area but would just drive through the others.
Regards
Brian

[BruceS]

Kelvin it's funny you ask because I asked about growth on the hull too.
A couple of years ago during the very low river flows the water turned very salty & killed most of the growth on everyone's hulls/pontoons.
No barnacles but more like an algae ............ squirts off with just town water pressure.
As far as that lady goes.............. her pontoons have rusted out due to no new anodes being installed & to save her "ship" from sinking, she now has had her 'friends' install about a doz of those poly 200 litre blue drums under each side. I'm guessing when she falls off the perch the boat will be hauled out & scrapped now. I'll take a photo of it next time I'm down there.
Some do their hulls with hooker gear & a coarse scourer sponge...........

[Wilbor]

Top speed of 8-10 knots!!! That’s about 100 nautical miles a day on an easy day!!! Most motor boats and just about every sailboat would love to be able to go that fast!!!

We recently got back from a 2 month trip on a motorboat north from Cardwell to Margret Bay and we had fruit and vegies for at least 4 weeks at a time (we resupplied at Lockhart River & Cooktown), that’s about 600 nautical miles each way. So me thinks it would be relatively easy to inadvertently take fruit & vegies over the border on the Murray R.

When I was working on a ship in the Torres Straits there were quarantine rules there about what could and what could not be brought back south, no inspection stations but you did need to advise quarantine of movements and they did inspect on arrival further south

It is all about if you want to put our primary producers at risk, not if you will get caught or not

[Kelvin12]

Guess the fruit flies know not to cross the border.

Dirk

[Wilbor]

They are very clever little buggers My wife was working as a fruitbat inspector for the Papaya Fruit Fly eradication program some years ago, that cost us millions of $’s, it worked but very expensive. There are still Papaya Fruit Flys in the Torres Straits and it’s just a matter of time until someone brings them south again

I would have thought that SA would have had something in place for boats bringing produce in via the Murray??