Project Leader, Organisation

Jordan Bailey, NSW DPI

Status

Complete

Background

For the International Year of Plant Health, and National Science Week, NSW DPI celebrated plant health and biosecurity with their mascot the Biosecurity Warrior. A custom webpage and free activity pack were developed to engage kids across the state on the importance of plants and how they (and their parents) can become biosecurity warriors and protect our plants.

The activity packs included an activity book on plant health and how biosecurity protects us, a magnet promoting the plant biosecurity reporting hotline, a macro lens for helping you take great pictures of suspicious pests and diseases, a warrior bandana, stickers and lollies.

The website explored a sick tomato plant, learning about the different organisms that cause plant disease and what you can do at home to help protect your backyard plants. The resources created for the page have already been useful when producing other educational materials and we hope to build on this foundation to create a complete education tool on plant, animal and ecosystem health and how good biosecurity practices help us protect them – at the government, industry and backyard level.

Objectives and impact

Objectives – Raise biosecurity awareness and foster an appreciation for plant health and biosecurity efforts.

Impacts and Outcomes

  • Biosecurity warrior webpage on plant health and plant biosecurity aimed at children aged 8-12. The webpage was hosted on the Royal Botanic Gardens/Australian Museum Sydney Science Trail website from August 15 – September 15. The webpage is no longer hosted on the Sydney Science Trail but can be viewed here – https://biosecurity-warrior.demo.circul8.com.au/ – until March 2021.
  • Biosecurity Warrior activity packs – these packs complemented the webpage and were distributed via postage and pickup at central west libraries. We are still distributing packs.
  • As of 20.10.2020
    • the ordering page has 1090 views with 139 orders for a total of 199 packs distributed.
    • 100 packs were also sent to schools in the ACT
    • 160 packs were sent to school holiday programs
    • 50 packs were sent to remote communities (Lake Cowal Foundation, West Wyalong; Booberoi Creek Water User Landholders, Euabalong; Down The Track Youth Program – Lower Lachlan Community Services, Lake Cargelligo; Jasper Road Public School Arbour (School Garden) Program; Murrin Bridge Community Development Program (Garden), Lake Cargelligo/Murrin Bridge)

The warrior packs included custom lollies bearing the IYPH and NSW waratah logos. These were made by Australian company sticky lollies, this company live streams their lollies being made, and 77,600 people have watched our order. They mention the year of plant health and the importance of biosecurity several times throughout the video.

Biosecurity scientist profile videos. Short videos covering the work of NSW DPI /DPIE plant health scientists, these included:

  • Dr Toni Chapman – Bacteriologist, NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI)
  • Elizabeth Frost – Bee Specialist, NSW DPI
  • Dr Angus Carnegie – Forest pathology, NSW DPI
  • Shannon Mulholland –  Plant virologist, NSW DPI
  • Dr Polychronis Rempoulakis – Leader Plant Biosecurity Entomology, NSW DPI
  • Dr Jordan Bailey – Leader Plant Pathology Curation, NSW DPI
  • Peter Gillespie – Insect Collections Curator, NSW DPI
  • Megan Hinds – Threatened species Officer, NSW Parks & Wildlife.

These videos can be viewed at www.thecorridorproject.org/science-hub

Across our activities we have engaged over 1,700 people directly on the topic of plant health and plant biosecurity.

The Final Report can be downloaded here.