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In Victoria we are currently being told that this year we could see 'the worst locust plague in 75 years' and that 'a plague like this effects everyone'.

All of this media attention and advertising has caused me to ask - what exactly happened in Victoria 75 years ago?

To answer this question I have first turned to the historical newspapers  (most notably The Argus) available through the National Library of Australia's Trove search facility.  I realise that relying on one source of information can present a bias. With this in mind I will later turn to other sources of information about locust history in Victoria. For the time being, however, I will present on this blog the progression of the 1934/35 locust plague in Victoria as reported in The Argus.

What do I hope to achieve? There are a lot of myths out there about locust plagues. I hope to make people a little better informed about the history of locust plagues in Victoria, including the exaggerations of the media, political pressures and behind the scenes manipulations of producers and distributors of poisons and other chemical means of  locust 'control'. I hope in this way that people will gain a better understanding about the damages locust plagues actually caused in the past, and perhaps be able to encourage people to seek other ways to minimise locust damage in the future using environmentally safe methods.

The current approach to locust management, treating locusts with chemical and biological insecticides, is dangerous to the health of farmers and the community and seriously detrimental to natural ecosystems.  For further information please see the SaveTheLocust website. Yes, this web site has an interesting title...but please look beyond the title and actually appreciate that the author has experience and that his ideas are worth pursuing.