GUYS!!!!!
I thought this had been checked? Wasn't that one of the reasons for choosing Rutherglen?
I definitely have fruit fly & couldn't bear the thought of introducing it to a fruit fly free area.

How can SA fruit be unwelcome in VIC if we don't have fruit fly here? I don't get it!

PP

I think it is because you may have purchased fruit imported from a fruit fly area PP. It is a total exclusion zone I think.

I really think AQIS has a bloody nerve telling us what we can and cannot take. They don't exactly have an unblemished record when it comes to introducing, or rather permitting the introduction of, some of the worst pests this country has seen, both animal and plant!!!

And SA does have fruit fly PP! Mediterranean FF, as opposed to Queensland FF! I saw a program about the spraying of Adelaide suburbs to control it. These trucks drive up and down your streets spraying whatever it is willy nilly!

Let's just cancel the whole damn thing!!!!!

Arrrggghhh, I didn't know that Ray! News to me, and haven't heard of any spraying around these parts. Nevertheless, I'm not too impressed with AQIS pedantry myself!!!

PP

Yep, the AQIS record sure ain't perfect. I expect they're trying to protect the stone fruit and citrus farmers who are (not all, no doubt) busily improving the Murray for SA...

According to the searches I did last night, Rutherglen seems to be on the edge of the exclusion zone. Personally, I don't see any problem if we take every scrap of waste back home with us in sealed ziplocs. If there are eggs under the skin yet to hatch, they'll hatch back home.

My 2 cents worth.

PP, still considering options.

hi all look for my two cents worth, what makes the powers that be think that the fruit fly can read and knows to stop at the border of course they are all over our country and I honestly cant see why your trip cant go ahead , are you sure when you breathe or even open your eyes you arent contributing to something any way sorry if I have offende anyone but thats my opinion ok
lorraine

I do find it odd that an exclusion zone can have a defined boundary. That it's all right to take (in this case) tomatoes to point A, but not to point B, fifty metres away from point A. Which isn't to deny the problem that fruit fly can cause. It's just an odd bureaucratic outcome.

Anyway, taking a pragmatic approach, I'd've thought the real problem would be people discarding affected fruit out the car window, in rubbish bins, or wherever the fruit fly and/or its eggs - if they're present - can potter off and do their thing. I'd've thought that sensible basic precautions - including taking the remains home sealed, as Auntie P suggests - would guard against any practical dangers.

Me? Promote disobedience? *shocked*

PS. I don't have fruit fly around here. Nor, thanks to timing, and the dang boids, do I have any ripe tomatoes!

It really does look weirdly arbitrary. The "we've thrown up our hands and given this up to fruit fly" zone looks like walking distance from the ffez for a determined fruit fly.

if I were you people I would go to rutherglen with your tommies and take home whatever you can in bags and have agreat time and sorry I cant come to meet you all but if you go to any wineries (bullers is great) have a drink for me and enjoy ok
lorraine

No worries, lorraine, and thanks for the excuse to have a drink! I wouldn't otherwise have had one! :)

Guffaws :-)

Can I have one for you as well, Richard? That'd be two drinks I'll have for the weekend.

ROFL

The exclusion zone was exactly for thr reasons stated here, the wanton throwing of waste stuff from windows etc. It really is ridiculous , but the penalties are very gruesome. .
On a lighter note, Sue from the caravan Park, tells me The pickled Sisters do a mean lunch as well, which is, in her opinion, better than the dinner. Another good thing is that it's a lot cheaper than I first thought. Fifty dollars would easily see me fed to bursting, I'm assured. I was told by Sue I'm thinking in Sydney Head again, and not normal money. !!And they excell in Desserts!!!!!

Desserts Adam, you are tempting me.

I've booked Pickled Sisters for eight for the Saturday night.

Thanks Finbar

I asked for a discount on account of the fact that we'll be bringing some pickled sisters with us.

Hehe, well I'm doing everything I can to look the part! Wait 'til you see what happened after my scissors attacked my hair during a recent spell of unendurable heat and humidity.

The hairdresser tried to fix it today, with what was left anyhow

PP

PP, I had to get the hairdresser to give me a number two shave, after a fellow shearer attacked me and shore a chunk of hair off the back of me melon. Not having to comb the hair for weeks was Ok, but the look didn't suit my nobbly scone.

I'm seriously thinking of fundraising for the Leukaemia foundation!

Don't knock it til you've tried it! Its the drafts on the back of the neck that get you after you've had a lifetime of long hair - but a delight to find you become a blonde at 65 when it starts to come back after years of having brown hair!

Linda

Tell me about draughts. I had a ponytail for five years. 'Twas nippy after it came off.

I know you're all just ridiculing me coz i went bald at 18. There is a man in my street who wears the WORST squirrel I have ever seen, it even has a tuft out of it at the back. It constantly looks as though he has had a cyst removed, it's really creepy.
Baldness is something which happens.
There is a theory that it only happens to people who have had siphylis in their ancestry. I thought I came from a good family.

We could swing by with a doggie bag, oz. All of us could compare haircuts. Oh god, what a frightening thought.

Well I'm very sorry to sat this but I'm not going to be able to come this weekend.
As you know I had a fair bit of storm damage here last week, I still have trees down on my fences & have been waiting for the tree lopper to come & cut them up. He was hoping to come today but the rain held him up & he didn't get finished at the last job, so he's coming tomorrow & I have the fencer lined up for Monday.
I'm obviously very disappointed & sorry to let you down but there's really no way around it.
Sarah :-((

garn ya bloody piker. Don't worry, we'll bring a doggie bag back for you. Just imagine it's HIM when you're doing the chain sawing.LOL

The world has conspired against me this weekend , with the wife away at a 'training something' in Melbourne and wont be home now until Saturday. I was planning a shock arrival on Saturday, to return on Sunday, but the real cruncher came with the realisation that my eldest daughter turns ten on Sunday. So a double piker I be.

Thinking of maybe next year, it seems that it would be hard for us to get ripe toms at the same time. Maybe we could have two events, one for when the NSW folk have ripe toms, and another for when we of the southern climes have them.

*Mantis, just trying to add a new level of complexity*

As far as I know I'm still going, but I'm not sure how many tommies I'll be able to bring for taste testing. It's been very cool here and I have next to nothing that's ripe. I'll have to pop around to dad's to see what he has tonight. Mmm, nice and fresh!