At first glance AQIS officer David Drechsler thought Customs would be very interested in what he had just removed from a cargo consignment—but closer inspection revealed a quarantine risk rather than a Customs breach.

David couldn't believe his eyes when he opened a carton and revealed what appeared to be several one-metre high marijuana plants.

'They looked like real plants, but when I took them out of the box I could feel synthetic material and knew they weren't organic.'

The consignment imported into Adelaide contained nine imitation plants crafted mostly from harmless plastic, but it was the lichen covered trunk that caught David's eye—lichen is a delicate, interlaced, mossy sort of plant that is part algae and part fungus which could introduce harmful plant diseases.

To counteract the quarantine risk the faux plants were gamma irradiated before being released to the importer—a training authority where the plants will be used in simulated exercises.