Boonarga Cactoblastis Memorial Hall

This place, 12 km ESE of Chinchilla, is the only building in Queensland that honors an insect.

In the 19th century, roughly 1843, a prickly-pear cactus (Opuntia stricta) was introduced here from South America. By the 1920's, dense thickets of inpenetrable cactus covered an area larger than the UK, destroying countless farms and becoming a major national crisis.

Alan Dodd travelled to both Americas, looking for a pest that would target just this cactus. He brought back the cochineal moth (cactoblastis catorium), whose larvae were released in 1926 by Queensland farmers from several locations.

The program was the most-successful pest-control program in world history. Begun in 1925, it was out-of-business by 1936, an absolute smashing success. Dodd became something of a national hero for his efforts to save Queensland agriculture.

Other pests remain, of course. Slowly spreading in the area even today, the three-pear prickly pear cactus......