Highway Pest Police

For a war zone, the scene is strangely peaceful. As night falls on Ceduna, the noise of traffic gradually recedes until all that can be heard at the highway roadblock are the dulcet tones of Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton reviewing the new movie Jindabyne on TV. "If you had come between four and five," says quarantine inspector Geoff Provis, 62, dressed in fishing hat and fluoro jacket, "you would have had caravans coming out your ears."

It's 48 years since Ceduna declared war on the fruit fly. A pest in other states, this blight of...