MACHINERY dealerships may have staff trained up specifically to certify that used agricultural equipment being sent interstate is free from biological contamination risk before it leaves, under a new regulation.
Since March, ICA-66 (Interstate Certification Assurance) has allowed used agricultural equipment to be hot pressure-washed and certified free of contamination risk by appropriately trained people three days before it reached the border, Kirsten Hall from Quarantine WA told the FM&IA of WA conference.
"We are trying to simplify the system to avoid the situation where a load (of used agricultural machinery) going east gets to Ceduna (the first east-bound biosecurity checkpoint in South Australia) and is turned back," Ms Hall said.
She agreed dealerships with multiple outlets could set up a mobile hot-wash unit which travelled between outlets to clean equipment, provided each outlet had an appropriate wash-down pad and there were dealer staff trained up who could certify the cleaning job.
Ms Hall said training for certification was being set up through TAFE and there were some private training providers.
She said ICA-66 was Quarantine WA's solution to streamlining local compliance for legislative requirements imposed on machinery entry by other State governments.