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Home / Managing Biosecurity Risk in NSW

NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI), New South Wales Wine Industry Association (NSW Wine) and the Southern NSW Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub have partnered with Onside Intelligence to pilot a vineyard biosecurity solution. The project is a joint initiative and forms part of the Australian Government’s Agricultural Innovation Hubs Program. 

The Track & Trace pilot project gives winegrape growers in Orange, Mudgee, Canberra and Tumbarumba access to a free, simple and effective way to improve industry readiness for and response to biosecurity threats. The Onside app offers extra options to streamline and digitise vineyard operations safety and compliance, including digital record keeping for the Sustainable Winegrowing Australia certification.

Using the Onside app, winegrape growers and contractors can report all plant material, machinery and equipment movements on and off vineyards. The project aims to test how effectively a technology-based solution can break down barriers associated with best practice on-farm biosecurity. 

NSW DPI is testing how effectively Onside’s live data and traceability capabilities can deliver accurate and speedy responses to emerging biosecurity threats.

Who does it effect?

Everyone in NSW has a general biosecurity duty under the NSW Biosecurity Act 2015.  The principle of shared responsibility means everyone needs to do whatever is reasonable for them to do to prevent, eliminate or minimise biosecurity risks. The spread of endemic pests and diseases or incursion of exotic pests and diseases poses a huge threat to the viticulture industry.

Building and maintaining accurate movement data around biosecurity threats helps to protect the long-term resilience of the NSW wine industry and the broader region.

Farmer at a vineyard.

Why is it important?

A biosecurity risk may take the form of a disease or pest that already exists within a restricted area or is a recent new incursion in Australia, NSW, a region or a vineyard.

Currently, if a pest or disease outbreak occurs, it takes time to conduct tracing investigations, to inform the response and minimise the potential short, medium and long-term impact caused due to economic losses.

There are numerous potential vectors of biosecurity risks in the viticulture industry that are currently not reliably or effectively traceable. Vectors can include machinery, vehicles, internal staff, contractors, consultants, researchers, site visitors and the general public.

The viticulture industry commonly uses contractors and equipment that are mobile across regional and state borders. With the increasing automation and the potential use of automated machines on a contract basis, it could reasonably be expected that biosecurity risks may increase.

Onside Intelligence

Onside Intelligence’s movement data and network science algorithms are designed to trace and predict disease spread to manage biosecurity threats.

Automatic or manual reporting?

Currently, people typically record movements of machinery, equipment and plant material manually. This is time consuming, especially in a response. Onside’s app is designed for winegrape growers to use in the field on a mobile device, without the need for physical notebooks or spreadsheets.

How can I get involved and use automated recording?

If you are a winegrape grower in Orange, Mudgee, Canberra or Tumbarumba you will have received an invitation from NSW DPI to join the Track & Trace pilot project and register to use Onside’s Check-in app. If you decide to join and use Onside’s app to record movements on and off your vineyard, you’ll be contributing to the NSW and Australian Governments’ ongoing efforts to ensure the long-term resilience of the NSW wine industry and local communities.

You can enable automated recording in the Onside app once you’ve signed up. You can deactivate automated reporting at any time.

Getting your staff and contractors started

Most businesses have a few key people or contractors that typically move plant material around. Learn more about inviting contractors to Onside.

You can get in touch with NSW DPI’s Leonie Martin 0428 569 822 or with the Onside team 1800 112 334 for more information.

FAQs

What am I agreeing to share with NSW DPI?

When you enable reporting via Onside, you are agreeing to share with NSW DPI:

  1. Plant material & machinery movement records stored in Onside
  2. Anonymised visitor logs
  3. Your contact details (or the details of your nominated contact person)
  4. In the event of a biosecurity concern, and only where reasonably required for the purposes of NSW DPI Biosecurity team to do their job, or as otherwise required under applicable law, NSW DPI may ask Onside to provide identifying contact details for a person that has visited your property. It is only in this case that visitor details are shared with NSW DPI. NSW DPI will inform you if it has obtained these details from Onside, unless required otherwise under applicable law.
What if I change my mind?

You can disable recording anytime in the same place you enable recording

Register an Onside account

Start reporting material movements and keeping records with Onside

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