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Across the 58,708 sq km of the Isaac mining and farming territories there are 83 State Emergency Service volunteers, or an average of one person per 1107sq km.
It is a daunting challenge for the orange army to protecting a regional area almost as big as Tasmania
Local controller Daniel Deal said while the district was ready for disaster, he was always keen to invite new members to join.
“At the moment we’re on good numbers, but we would like more,” he said.
“We’re scattered across the whole of Isaac.”
Mr Deal said the largest groups were at Moranbah, Nebo, Clermont and the recently reopened Carmila unit, with smaller units in Dysart, Middlemount and St Lawrence.
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Subscriber only There is a new bioweapon in the arsenal to fight against a small pest with a voracious appetite for Queensland s agricultural crops. Native to the tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas, fall armyworm arrived on Australian shores at the beginning of 2020 and has since been detected in Emerald, Clermont, Mackay and Dysart. It eats more than 350 plant species including sugarcane, vegetables, sorghum, pastures and wheat. The Agricultural and Fisheries Department has been given the green light to import Fawligen, a biopesticide which infects the caterpillar and its larvae with a virus. Agricultural Industry Development Minister Mark Furner said importing Fawligen for research allowed the government to begin testing how it performed under local conditions.