00:02The locusts have arrived on Jim Pickering's farm.
00:0612 days ago they first hatched.
00:08They banded together and then I've controlled them.
00:12And now we've got a second hatching coming out.
00:15Jim is spending every day monitoring and spraying his farm at Moringa,
00:20west of Mildura, to stay on top of the problem.
00:25But he says he and his neighbours feel unsupported in their efforts
00:30to try and control the exploding locust numbers.
00:33I'm very frustrated with the department.
00:36I and 10 other neighbours, or it could be more, that has reported them.
00:42And we've had no phone calls.
00:45Agriculture Victoria has been running a locust surveillance program
00:49since September, urging farmers to report sightings.
00:53But that's where the support ends.
00:55Agriculture Victoria is not responsible for doing any of the actual
00:59active treatment apart from our own land.
01:02Our understanding is that there is a lot of treatment going on.
01:05They should be assisting landholders as well
01:07because they're ultimately doing this at their own cost of time and money.
01:12And at a time when farming costs are high, that's a major issue.
01:17Diesel's not free. Time's not free.
01:19It's a labour intensive job.
01:21It's even worse when you're sitting on one of your best crops ever
01:24and it could go overnight.
01:25Over the border in South Australia,
01:27locust spraying is subsidised by the state government.
01:30But as it stands, here in Victoria,
01:32there is no financial assistance available,
01:35leaving these Malley farmers to protect the industry at their own cost.
01:39paying to avoid a problem of plague proportions.
01:42of their own conditions.
01:44of course, how do you assist in farmers?
01:45of course, incosmine.
01:45of course, the cyclical conditions for you're a global
