If you are travelling to Tasmania as a resident or a visitor, or moving permanently to Tasmania, you have an important role to play in helping to protect the state from the impact of pests, weeds and disease.
Listed below are some biosecurity actions you can take to help keep you and your family - and Tasmania - biosecurity safe.
Important Biosecurity Actions
Before travelling you should thoroughly check that you are not carrying any restricted biosecurity matter on your person, in your luggage or within any unaccompanied luggage or belongings. Check what you can and cannot bring into Tasmania.
If you do find that you have carried some biosecurity matter with you into Tasmania you should, immediately on arrival, declare this to a Biosecurity Officer on duty, or dispose of the matter in the marked biosecurity disposal bin.
Biosecurity vigilance (also known as Notification of a Biosecurity Event)
If you SEE something while you are in Tasmania that is unusual or of biosecurity concern, such as potential exotic plant/animal pests, weeds or diseases, or invasive animal species;
SECURE the site by restricting access if possible (and limiting movement in the case of suspected animal diseases) AND take a photo, noting the location; and then
REPORT it to Biosecurity Tasmania as soon as possible.
Please note: Taking your own samples may increase the risk of spreading the biosecurity risk so Biosecurity Tasmania will provide further instruction regarding possible sample collection and submission.
You should also take all reasonable and practicable measures to ensure that any outdoor or recreational items (i.e. fishing, camping, cycling, bushwalking, hunting, diving, surfing and golf equipment) you bring with you, have been CHECKED, CLEANED and DRIED and are free from soil, dirt, seeds and other foreign matter.
You should be ready to present any recreational or outdoor equipment to Biosecurity Tasmania Officers on arrival for inspection.
Throughout your stay, you must adhere to any specific biosecurity instructions provided by tourism or agricultural operations.
Tasmania is the only Australian state to be provisionally free of hydatid disease. To keep it that way, Tasmania has special entry requirements that you must meet before you can bring your dog into the State.
Tasmania is also not known to have an established presence of some dog parasites, including the brown dog tick. The brown dog tick transmits ehrlichiosis, a serious disease of dogs present in some parts of mainland Australia.
To help keep hydatids out of our state, and to reduce the risk of the brown dog tick infecting our dogs, Biosecurity Tasmania requires that a declaration be made by people bringing dogs to Tasmania. On their entry into Tasmania dogs will need to be declared as having been treated for hydatid tapeworm, and that they have also been checked for ticks.
Dogs must be treated for hydatids with a worming treatment, containing the drug praziquantel, within fourteen (14) days before entry into Tasmania.
Contact and reporting
Contact Biosecurity Tasmania for general information or to report a suspected pest, weed or disease:
Phone: (03) 6165 3777
Email: Biosecurity.Tasmania@nre.tas.gov.au
Alternatively, for reporting pests, weeds or diseases, you can call the Exotic Plant Pest Hotline (1800 084 881) or the Emergency Animal Disease Hotline (1800 675 858).
Stay up to date on Biosecurity in Tasmania
Subscribing to get Tasmanian Biosecurity Advisories is the best way you can keep yourself up-to-date and fully informed about Tasmanian biosecurity issues. Our Advisories cover topics such as changes or proposed changes to Tasmania’s import regulations, animal health and welfare, plant health, forthcoming regulation reviews and opportunities for public comment, new or emerging pest/disease risks and a range of other matters related to Tasmania’s biosecurity.
Follow Biosecurity Tasmania on Facebook.
Please note that this information contains minimum recommendations only. The GBD requires a person dealing with biosecurity matter or a carrier to take all reasonable and practicable measures to prevent, eliminate or minimise any biosecurity risk associated with the dealing. Such measures may not be specified in any regulations, guidelines or other official publications.