The Froggatt Award is presented to people who have made a major contribution to protecting Australia's native plants and animals, ecosystems, and people from dangerous new invasive species.
The Froggatt Awards are named in honour of Australian entomologist Walter Froggatt, who, when the cane toad was released into Australia in the 1930s to control beetle infestations in the sugar cane industry, was a lone voice, lobbying the federal government to exercise caution.
The Froggatt Awards were first presented in 2003, by the Invasive Species Council.
From 2003 to 2006 there was only one award per year.
No awards were issued from 2007 to 2014.
From 2015 there have been multiple awards presented, one each for various categories of activity determined each year.
The original trophy was a stuffed cane toad, but is now a framed certificate.
In 2006 the award was temporarily renamed from the Froggatt Award to the Biosecure Australia Award,[1] and renamed back to the Froggatt Award in 2015 when the awards recommenced.
The Biosecure Australia Award was to be presented annually in recognition of an outstanding contribution to the eradication, early warning, preventative action, awareness raising or management of an invasive species in Australia.
In 2017 the award received exceptionally extensive coverage within Australia, and also international coverage, when it was awarded to the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, Barnaby Joyce. This was in recognition of the minister's actions when pet dogs Pistol and Boo were brought to Australia by Johnny Depp and his partner Amber Heard in contravention of the Biosecurity Act 2015.[2]
| Category | Presented to | Citation | Ref | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Communication | Gregory Andrews | Australia's first Threatened Species Commissioner, for his enthusiastic and fearless efforts in raising awareness about the impact of feral cats and other invasive species. | ||
| Control and eradication | Sea Spurge Remote Area Teams | For 10 years work eradicating sea spurge from Tasmania’s rugged southwest coastline. During this period more than 150 remote area volunteers have removed 14.2 million sea purge plants from 600km of coastline using 6000 hours of labour valued at over $1.4 million. | ||
| Research | Ecology Australia | For their generous pro bono support surveying Australia’s only smooth newt infestation. |
| Category | Presented to | Citation | Ref | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Principled decision-making | Barnaby Joyce | For the decision to introduce mandatory biofouling rules to prevent marine pests entering Australia, and for acting quickly and decisively in expelling Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's dogs which had been brought into Australia in an apparent breach of Australia's strict quarantine laws. | ||
| Communication | Lucy Karger, Lori Lach, Daniel Bateman, Frank Teodo | For exceptional efforts to eradicate yellow crazy ants from the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. Without these tireless efforts few people would appreciate the danger posed by the highly invasive and environmentally destructive yellow crazy ant. | ||
| Control | NSW red imported fire ant response | For rapid and effective effort in eliminating red imported fire ants from Port Botany in Sydney. | ||
| Policy and law | Senate Environment and Communications References Committee | For their work on the inquiry into environmental biosecurity and the final report, an insightful coverage of a complex issue with cross-party recommendations aimed at improving Australia's preparedness against invasive species impacting the environment. |
| Year | Presented to | Citation | Ref | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Barbara Waterhouse, Team Botanist with the Northern Australia Quarantine Strategy | For work in directly stopping some of the world's worst weeds from establishing in Australia | ||
| 2004 | The community of Inverloch, in south eastern Victoria, including the many non-residents who lent their support | For their inspired efforts to eradicate a Northern Pacific Seastar outbreak that had spread from Port Phillip Bay | ||
| 2005 | Samantha Setterfield, Michael Douglas | For cutting-edge work with three grass species, including Gamba (Andropogon gayanus). For their research on the severe impacts of tropical grassy weeds in northern Australia, and advocacy for a strong response from government. |