Road Trip Caution – Fruit Fly Exclusion Zones

Written by Lee Welch: 31-March-2009

Be careful what you take across borders...

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Calling all travelling auto chicks with a passion for fine fresh produce and the open road. Did you know that apple you tucked in your glovebox as insurance against a snack attack could cost you thousands of dollars if you drive it somewhere you shouldn't?

Throughout south eastern Australia, in the heart of our horticultural producing areas, is the Fruit Fly Exclusion Zone. It takes in the Riverland in South Australia, Murray Valley and Sunraysia in Victoria and the Riverina in New South Wales and it's a quarantine area for fruit and vegetables. That means you can't take some fresh fruit or fruiting vegetables into this area (and you can't take any fruit or vegetables over the state border into South Australia, either). There are permanent and mobile roadblocks around the Zone. Last year, a single apple cost one driver $2500 in fines and court costs. Now that's no way to spend your hard earned cash, is it?

You can check a map of the Fruit Fly Exclusion Zone and get a full list of restricted produce on your mobile at www.fruitfly.net.mobi or online at www.fruitfly.net.au Here's a quick reference of no-go foods:

• Any citrus fruit (e.g. orange, mandarin, lime, grapefruit, lemon, cumquat)
• Any pome fruit (e.g. apple, pear, quince, crab apple)
• Any tropical or temperate fruit (e.g. avocado, banana, berries, feijoa, fig, guava, grapes, passionfruit, loquat, mango, pawpaw, persimmon)
• Any fruiting vegetable (e.g. capsicum, chilli, eggplant, tomato, tamarillo).

Save your cash for the auto store and snack ahead of the Zone, or use the disposal bins provided on major transport routes. You'll be protecting our primary producers and your purse!