review of Australia’s quarantine procedures has been undertaken after historic and valuable plant specimens from France were destroyed by biosecurity officers.

In March, a collection of rare flowering plants sent by the Museum of Natural History in Paris to Queensland’s herbarium in Brisbane was incinerated.

Michelle Waycott, who chairs the Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria, said the pressed plant specimens dated back to the mid-1800s.

“They were the first type specimens collected of a species,” she said.

“That would be the equivalent of material collected in the Flinders expedition, going and then destroying those.
http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-08/irreplaceable-plant-specimens-destroyed-by-biosecurity-officers/8504944

I want my Dope Seeds back too.

dv said:

review of Australia’s quarantine procedures has been undertaken after historic and valuable plant specimens from France were destroyed by biosecurity officers.

In March, a collection of rare flowering plants sent by the Museum of Natural History in Paris to Queensland’s herbarium in Brisbane was incinerated.

Michelle Waycott, who chairs the Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria, said the pressed plant specimens dated back to the mid-1800s.

“They were the first type specimens collected of a species,” she said.

“That would be the equivalent of material collected in the Flinders expedition, going and then destroying those.
http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-08/irreplaceable-plant-specimens-destroyed-by-biosecurity-officers/8504944

I have long thought that Australian Customs is ratshit, blocking and destroying importations of harmless plant and animal products.

The whole philosophy of customs is wrong. “If I don’t understand it, destroy it because it could be dangerous”. The correct attitude would be “Innocent until proved guilty”.

This is just the latest and worst in a very long series of outrages by the Australian Customs service.

mollwollfumble said:

dv said:

review of Australia’s quarantine procedures has been undertaken after historic and valuable plant specimens from France were destroyed by biosecurity officers.

In March, a collection of rare flowering plants sent by the Museum of Natural History in Paris to Queensland’s herbarium in Brisbane was incinerated.

Michelle Waycott, who chairs the Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria, said the pressed plant specimens dated back to the mid-1800s.

“They were the first type specimens collected of a species,” she said.

“That would be the equivalent of material collected in the Flinders expedition, going and then destroying those.
http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-08/irreplaceable-plant-specimens-destroyed-by-biosecurity-officers/8504944

I have long thought that Australian Customs is ratshit, blocking and destroying importations of harmless plant and animal products.

The whole philosophy of customs is wrong. “If I don’t understand it, destroy it because it could be dangerous”. The correct attitude would be “Innocent until proved guilty”.

This is just the latest and worst in a very long series of outrages by the Australian Customs service.

Not just Customs. Parks & Wildlife are the same. Or as they are known The Dept of wildfires & euthanasia.

I accept that biosecurity is a serious business. There will be cases where specimens cannot be imported to Australia. Under normal circumstances the result would be for the item to be returned to sender at either the sender or the recipient’s expense.

There were documentation errors by both the recipient and sender in this case which led to delays but it appears that someone done fucked up as the specimens were destroyed while the matter was being investigated.

You would think specimens sent from one herbarium to another would warrant special consideration, not just a non-thinking bureaucratic reaction. Herbarium specimens do NOT harbor soil and/or pests. Herbariums have stringent controls on their collections and each and everyone is deep frozen to ensure there are no living organisms that could harm not only that specimen, but all the herbarium collections. Makes you sick at the stupidity of some people in responsible positions.

PermeateFree said:

You would think specimens sent from one herbarium to another would warrant special consideration, not just a non-thinking bureaucratic reaction. Herbarium specimens do NOT harbor soil and/or pests. Herbariums have stringent controls on their collections and each and everyone is deep frozen to ensure there are no living organisms that could harm not only that specimen, but all the herbarium collections. Makes you sick at the stupidity of some people in responsible positions.

Quite so.

dv said:

PermeateFree said:

You would think specimens sent from one herbarium to another would warrant special consideration, not just a non-thinking bureaucratic reaction. Herbarium specimens do NOT harbor soil and/or pests. Herbariums have stringent controls on their collections and each and everyone is deep frozen to ensure there are no living organisms that could harm not only that specimen, but all the herbarium collections. Makes you sick at the stupidity of some people in responsible positions.

Quite so.

“some” though, understated

Around 40 odd years ago, something similar happened within Australia, when ‘type’ specimens were sent to the Perth Herbarium for research into a particular genus; they were returned by road carrier that was involved in an accident on the Nullarbor and the specimens were incinerated. The herbarium who owned these plants were very upset, as they thought they should have been sent back via air-courier and even today it still raises hackles, so you might imagine a far worse situation with the French and NZ Herbariums, which with the former also had considerable historical importance. I would imagine our research botanists must now get additional funding to personally visit overseas herbaria to study their collections, which is far less effective and considerably more inconvenient.