“[The fruit fly discovered in George Town] was in an existing control zone. As I understand it, there has been no detections in commercial areas,” Mr Rockliff said.

In speaking about the new fruit fly detections within Tasmanian control zones, Mr Rockliff said Biosecurity Tasmania staff had been working tirelessly on eradication.

“This has been a whole-of-government effort and we are ensuring that we will eradicate fruit fly,” he said.

“What’s also important is to ensure that we maintain market access for our hard-working fruit growing producers, and that’s exactly what we will do.”

The work of Tasmania’s public service, fruit growing industry and the public were also praised.

“We have hard-working members of Biosecurity Tasmania, others members of the hard-working public service and the public themselves,” Mr Rockliff said.