SA BUG BOARD ADMITS TO YARRA OUTBREAK

CHAMPION BICYCLIST LANCE ARMSTRONG HAS A WELL-EARNED WINE: WILL ANY OF THE TENS OF THOUSANDS OF VICTORIAN FANS HE ATTRACTS TO SOUTH AUSTRALIA'S TOUR DOWN UNDER BRING PHYLLOXERA WITH THEM? HOW WILL WE KNOW IF THEY DO?



Another Phylloxera Statement Emerges
Who Writes These Things? To Whom are they Sent?
by PHILIP WHITE

DRINKSTER now has receipt of a second “Press Release” from the Phylloxera And Grape Industry Board Of South Australia from Friday 16^th January.

This one actually mentions the Yarra Valley phylloxera outbreak, but not the Tour Down Under, which has attracted thousands of Victorian visitors to South Australian vineyards. Thousands more are expected during the next week.

Nobody knows how many of these people, or their vehicles, have recently been in phylloxera-infected country.

The statement from Alan Nankivell – CEO of the Phylloxera Board – says “there have been no further detections found since mid December 2008”.

Laced with confounding acronyms and gobbledegook, this statement simply adds to the litany of confusions of communication the current Yarra Valley phylloxera outbreak has triggered in the wine industry regulatory bodies.

However, it seems a Victorian regulatory body – mysteriously called only “DPI-Vic” -- will “issue permits to allow growers to send whole grapes from the extended PIZ to the rest of Yarra Valley GI for processing.

"Such grapes cannot move outside the Yarra Valley GI”.

These permits declare that all properties within the declared phylloxera zone must be surveyed and found free of phylloxera before they can send grapes outside of that zone for processing.

All such fruit must be packed in bins which are “free of soil and plant material”.

These bins must be “loaded into transport vehicles on a hard surface and not within the vineyard”.

The vehicles must be “cleaned free of soil and organic matter and conveyed along a route approved by an inspector”.

Each load “must be accompanied by a copy of the permit”.

Then, in one last impenetrable lump of unexplained acronyms, “Whole grapes must be processed at a facility, which must be accredited by DPI-Vic and the grape marc returned to the consigning property within the PIZ”.

The statement concludes thus:

“If any South Australian grape growers or wineries have contact with the Yarra Valley, the Phylloxera And Grape Industry Board strongly recommends that the National Phylloxera Management Protocols be adhered to.”

These should be at www.gwrdc.com.au/nvhscphylloxera .

DRINKSTER remains mystified by the following dilemma: if this is what must be done to limit the disease to the Yarra, and tens of thousands of Victorians are being encouraged to visit South Australia, sit in the vineyards, and watch Lance Armstrong and 130 other blokes riding pushbikes around this phylloxera-free state, why won’t they ensure these visitors don’t bring one single example of these microscopic critters in on their boots, carrots, or cars?

To whom are these “Press Releases” sent? Most grape-growers wouldn’t understand them, let alone journalists in busy city newsrooms.

I’ve been writing about wine and viticulture for thirty years, and I don’t understand the abbreviations and acronyms.

Neither have I been directly sent a “Press Release”.

Bird flu, horse flu, anthrax, terrorism ... are these better managed?

Obviously not.

While the Tour Down Under has presented the South Australian government and the wine industry councils a perfect opportunity to perfect a real-time “fire drill” in the face of a very real threat, and many have responded within the best of their abilities, or maybe a little better, it’s obvious that the communication systems at the top are simply not up to dealing with the realities.

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