CSIRO European Laboratory: Weed warriors, pest planners, and dung diplomacy − benefits of 60 years of native range research for effective biological control agents to Australia

• Sixty years of CSIRO research on weed and pest biological control reviewed. • Native-range studies supported safe and effective control in Australia. • Programs led to key advances in biological control methods worldwide. • Several major weeds successfully managed across Australian landscapes. • Research delivered over AU$1.4 billion in benefits to Australian agriculture. Classical biological control of weeds and pests has been practiced for over 120 years around the world resulting in huge benefits to agriculture and the environment from effective landscape control of invasive alien pests and weeds using risk assessed and deliberately introduced beneficial biological control agents. A classical biological control approach requires the sourcing, scientific evaluation and risk assessment of potential biological control agents from the native ranges of these invasive pests and weeds. The longest running research program for such native range biological control research in Australia has been focussed on managing pests and weeds of European origin, based out of the CSIRO European Laboratory in Montpellier France since 1966. This paper reviews the scientific achievements of this facility-based program and its associated research teams and the success rates and economic and environmental beneficial impacts for Australia over the last 60 years. Scientific achievements include a) fundamental advances in biological control theory and practice that have since been adopted around the world, b) the first ever successfully released and impactful plant pathogen weed biological control agent, c) the first ever comprehensive pre-border risk evaluation of a priority plant pest, Russian wheat aphid, including pre-emptively screening Australia wheat and barley varieties for resistance, preparing Australia for its arrival in 2016, d) the successful collection, evaluation, culturing and importations of 16 dung beetle species into Australia for the management of dung accumulation and the management of livestock parasites contained therein, and e) case by case understanding of the ecological basis for the invasions by many invasive plants of European origin into Australian ecosystems that have underpinned subsequent control strategies. In terms of benefit back to Australia, these research activities have led to a) the successful and widespread control of five agricultural weeds ( Carduus nutans , Chondrilla juncea , Echium plantagineum , Rumex pulcher , and Senecio jacobaea ) and one environmental weed ( Genista monspessulana ), as well as the partial control of three agricultural weeds ( Hypericum perforatum , Onopordum spp., and Rubus fruticosus ) and three environmental weeds ( Cytisus scoparius , Marrubium vulgare , and Rubus fruticosus ) in Australia, b) AU$1.43 billion in economic agricultural benefits back to Australia creating a return on investment of 27:1, c) the effective management of livestock dung in many temperate and Mediterranean areas of Australia.