Tall Poppies

Our bike ride out to the Bass Strait Maritime Museum took us along the dual use path along the west bank of the Mersey River and out to the point. This is a beautifully landscaped area with a lot of public art. One piece connected our trip back to Port Fairy.

GlaxoSmithKline(GSK) who have a factory in Port Fairy for the extraction of alkeloids, source their poppies from Tasmania. In fact their enterprise alone supplies 25% of the worlds medicinal opiate needs. They have co-funded the creation of this outstanding bronze installation. It appears that the poppies are exported to the mainland through Devonport and the artwork was commissioned in recognition of this important fact.

 

Tall poppies reach for the sky

The storyboard beneath the tall poppies noted the significance of the work of a Hungarian scientist, Janos Kabay, who developed an industrial method of morphine extraction from dry poppy straw.

How funny that the text has started to get wonky just thinking about the morphia.

Recent developments have seen an upset in the opium poppy growing and processing industry in Tasmania. There are 3 processors; GSK, Tasmanian Alkeloids and TPI Enterprises. Previously confined to Tasmania, approvals have recently been granted for growing opium poppies for the medicinal industry in mainland states and both GSK and Tasmanian Alkeloids (owned by another pharmaceutical giant - Johnson and Johnson) are already trailing crops. Just this week the Tasmanian based company, TPI Enterprises (a comparatively new and junior player in this lucrative industry) has announced that it will be moving it’s processing plant from Cressy in Tasmania to Victoria as they claim to be unable to obtain sufficient raw poppy material to meet demand. Are GSK and J and J hogging the available crop? The Tasmanian Government has until now been resolute in not allowing the importation of poppy straw from elsewhere on the grounds of risk to biosecurity. As this story has evolved, the Tasmanian government is now softening and prepared to give consideration to potential solutions. Is this all a bit too late? Has the horse already bolted?

If not for our visit to Port Fairy and now Devonport, the significance and intrigue of all this interstate, 'multi-national conglomerate' plus environmental politics may have slid below our radar.