Approximately thirty tyres chained together to be used as buffers in off-shore drilling activities were off loaded at East Arm wharf on Saturday 30/11/2003 or Sunday 31/11/2003. The offloading and storage site was approximately 1.5 km from the nearest shore. The consignment had been declared as drilling equipment instead of second hand tyres. The regular compulsory methyl bromide fumigation treatment had therefore not been carried out and the cargo was left on the wharf until inspection on Monday 1/12/2003. Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) officer Hugo Espinoza detected mosquito larvae in the tyres, and a sample of two 4th instar, one 3rd instar and one 2nd instar was submitted to the Medical Entomology Branch (MEB) on 1/12/03. The 4th instar larva was identified as Aedes albopictus.