Insect pests and weeds between them inflict more than $6 billion in damage on Australia's economy every year - a sum which far outweighs the total export earnings of the gold industry.

These invaders also cause immeasurable harm to the continent's native plants, animals and landscapes, on a scale only just starting to be appreciated by the community.

Dr Jim Cullen, who this week takes up the reins as Chief of CSIRO's Division of Entomology, is the scientist with responsibility for leading the counterattack on the invaders. At the same time his researchers are exploring a host of new ways in which insects can help to make Australians healthy, wealthy and wise.

The threat from insect invaders is never ending. In recent years, says Dr Cullen, Australia has suffered invasions by spiralling whitefly, silverleaf whitefly, the papaya fruitfly, the western flower thrip and now the mango leafhopper. New pests are coming in every year, despite our efforts to maintain a quarantine barrier.

"We need to be constantly vigilant, ready to tackle new invasions as soon as they are found. We need constant surveillance and the scientific skills base to deal with them.

The Division's researchers are also world pioneers in turning the insects' own natural diseases, parasites and defence systems against them - identifying the bacteria and insect viruses which naturally attack the pest, ensuring they are safe for other species, then devising clever ways to target the pest.

"Weeds are a massive threat to many of Australia's ecosystems," says Dr Cullen, who is renowned as the pioneer of several of the nation's most successful biocontrol programs.

"Whole areas are being smothered by invaders like boneseed, bitou bush, bridal creeper and mimosa, leading to an enormous decrease in native plants and animals. If there are endangered species in the threatened areas, it becomes a major issue."

The weed invasion has been slow but insidious, often taking more than 100 years for the invaders to escape, spread and establish themselves in plague proportions. Only now, says Dr Cullen, are Australians starting to look about and realise how much of their landscape has been taken over and how little of the native bush their grandchildren will ever see.

Under his leadership, CSIRO Entomology will continue to develop fresh approaches to both problems, integrating traditional and novel control methods to check the invaders, and also reduce the burden of pesticides on the landscape and foodchain.

In another revolutionary development., CSIRO entomologists are "mining" the genes of insects to find an entirely new range of substances which can be used as natural insecticides, industrial chemicals and even human medications.

"One of Australia's greatest advantages is its large, diverse and very distinctive insect fauna, which contains an enormous array of potentially useful substances," Dr Cullen says.

But that great diversity is still largely unexplored. So far, it is estimated, barely one quarter of Australian insect species have been described scientifically - even the 12 million specimens in the Australian National Insect Collection, each one a vital piece of environmental data, are but the tip of the iceberg. The great task of discovery still lies ahead for our entomologists.

And not just discovery, says Dr Cullen. The new field known as bioinformatics - organising and making use of the vital information locked up in the genes and species structure of the living world - is already shaping as a superscience of the 21st century.

After all, it is the key to one of the richest mother lodes of information, locked in the genes of all living things, that humanity has yet found. Mapping, and learning how to interpret and use that vast bank of information could be one of Australia's great high-tech industrial opportunities, he believes.

"The fascination of entomology is the way that it crosses all these issues and interacts with so many aspects of our lives," says Dr Cullen.

Dr Cullen replaces as Division Chief Dr Paul Wellings, seconded to DIST to take up the position of First Assistant Secretary with responsibility for Science and Technology.

More information:
Dr Jim Cullen, CSIRO Entomology 02 6246 4025
Jennie Goldie, CSIRO Entomology 02 6246 4194