The Hon Colin Barnett, WA Premier
The Hon Paul Henderson, Chief Minister Northern Territory
The Hon. Tony Burke MP Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities

Dear Sirs

Please, ensure that your governments take all possible action to stop cane toads from invading Western Australia.

The cane toad’s rampage through Qld and the NT has already caused the local extinction of animals like quolls and some goanna species and the impacts on fresh water crocodiles, snakes and birds are bound to be just as devastating. This toxic feral pest eats any native animal that will fit into its mouth. It poisons anything that bites it or picks it up. It is toxic even at egg and tadpole stage. It is extinction in motion.

Cane toads have crossed the WA border and will soon infest the vast Ord River system. Ecological damage to the unique Kimberley region will be swift and irreversible. Ecologists project that cane toads will eventually extend as far south as Margaret River and Esperance.

The Kimberley is now the only part of northern mainland Australia relatively free of this noxious invader. It is vital that we move decisively to protect our biodiversity heritage and WA’s most vulnerable citizens, the Aboriginal communities whose cultural existencerelies upon both totem and bush tucker. The loss of such native species will have a huge impact on the growing nature tourism economy of the region and many other negative social, economic and environmental effects.

Western Australians simply do not want cane toads infesting their back yards, their wetlands, their public places. We cannot afford it and we will not accept inaction. We call on you to help us to prevent this imminent invasion.

We support the strong call from the Kimberley community for a pre-emptivecane toad control program to be undertaken urgently to halt the westward progress of the cane toad. We welcome your increased efforts but you must keep this issue a top priority.

This is an environmental crisis that transcends the traditional boundaries of region or jurisdiction or party politics. It requires your co-operation with each other and with the community to forestall a tragedy during your term of office.

Minister Burke, please ensure that the Australian Government does all it can to support WA and NT in this race against time. We urge you to continue the search for an appropriate biological control but also to fund on-ground control and eradication initiatives.

In a crisis such as this a community has the chance to surpass itself, to unite and pull together. We expect our elected representatives find something out of the ordinary as well. We believe that the cane toad can be stopped if we work together. This is what we ask of you now. Urgent ongoing action. Cooperative, complimentary, unstinting action. Now, and until the job is done.