Biosecurity Queensland has confirmed the presence of the devastating disease Panama disease tropical race 4 (TR4) on a commercial banana farm in the Tully Valley in far north Queensland.

Queensland's Minister for Agriculture Bill Byrne said he had received advice today follow-up sample tests had confirmed TR4 on one of the properties owned by Mackays, Australia's largest banana producer.

"This particular operation is world class, everybody knows the extremely high levels of biosecurity they have on the block," Mr Byrne said.

"I think it's just symptomatic of this disease, there is a certain slow, inevitability about it.

"We understand how incredibly important this industry is to Queensland, it's a $600 million industry.

"We know it can't be eradicated and we know that history, all across the world, is that it spreads.

"But my hope is that we find and develop a variety of bananas that really takes this disease out of the equation."

Mackay family vows to contain outbreak

The Mackay family planted its first bananas in far north Queensland more than 70 years ago, and today is a completely vertically integrated operation from its distribution and farm base in Tully.

Mackay family spokesman Cameron Mackay today spoke for the first time since a suspect positive case was confirmed by authorities on a "patch" of his family's 1,000-hectare banana holdings.

Since self-reporting the suspicious plant several weeks ago, his family had moved immediately into containment mode.

"We are not holding back any stops to make sure we do contain it in that paddock, so it's pretty much whatever it takes to keep it there," Mr Mackay said.

"We've got good science around us … and hopefully with that information, we stand a chance of it not shifting."

Mr Mackay said discovering TR4 on his own farm had been challenging but had not shaken his belief in the future of banana farming.

"We've been around bananas for a long time," he said.

"So, if we stop it from spreading, which is what we're going to do, and contain it to the area it's in, we'll be banana farmers for a long time to come."

Council rules out further buy-outs

It is the second confirmed case of TR4 in the Tully area in the past two and a half years.

The farm at the centre of the first outbreak was bought back by industry and shut down, but the Australian Banana Growers' Council has ruled out any further buy-outs.

Chairman Stephen Lowe said the industry was confident the latest outbreak could be contained, and would continue to work with Biosecurity Queensland to achieve that.

"Certainly at this stage, containment is our strategy, and we can't do containment without government assistance so yes, we still require assistance from the Queensland Government via their Biosecurity Queensland budget for surveillance," he said.

The soil-borne disease particularly affects the popular Cavendish variety, which represents about 95 per cent of all bananas sold in Australia.

While TR4 does not affect the fruit, it kills banana plants.

Cameron Mackay says his family is in 'containment mode' after Panama TR4 was confirmed. ( Charlie McKillop )

Research the best chance of beating TR4

Mr Byrne said the industry's biosecurity preparedness had improved dramatically, as had the department's surveillance and testing regimes.

About 20 biosecurity officers and contractors in far north Queensland were focussed on securing the block, along with the considerable resources being contributed by the operator.

The Premier's Response and Resilience Taskforce would also be asked to re-focus its efforts on offering ongoing financial and mental health support for affected communities.

A banana plant shows the tell tale signs of the deadly soil disease, Panama tropical race 4. ( Supplied )

"As regrettable as it is, that it didn't happen earlier and go further, is probably credit to those on the ground who really went to incredible lengths to pull it up," he said.

"We're going to continue to put the effort into containing it.

"The longer we can contain it, isolate it, the more time we've got to adjust, the more time we have got to get our (research and development) to get us out the other side with resistant strains of bananas."

Mr Byrne said identifying the source of the original outbreak in 2015 had continued to elude biosecurity authorities, but exhaustive testing would continue for more clues.

"This is a little unique. The location of the (latest) detection is upstream, now that was not predicted given that most likely water moves the fungus around, but it's possible," he said.

"People are still trying to find that source but after two years, it's unlikely we'll ever be definitive about what the source is."