It's not so much the fact that it happened but to whom it happened.

In the small, tightknit banana farming community of far north Queensland — where more than 80 per cent of Australia's bananas are grown within a 100-kilometre radius — it did not take long for word to get out.

Not only was there another suspected case of the devastating soil-borne Panama disease tropical race 4 (TR4), but this time its potential victim was also Australia's largest banana growing operation.

Mackays Bananas, run by Cameron Mackay and his brother Stephen and cousins Barrie and Gavin is the legacy of a pioneering banana farming family which first planted bananas in Tully 100 years ago.

Mackays is regarded as an industry leader as Cameron himself was a president of the Australian Banana Growers' Council for many years and his family's multi-million dollar, vertically-integrated banana operation has set a benchmark for biosecurity protocols, innovation and on-farm practices.

So far, the family has not commented publicly on the positive test, but Biosecurity Queensland said the farm would continue to send fruit to market under strict biosecurity protocols.

Innisfail banana farmer Jade Buchanan said it was a wake-up call about the continuing threat of the disease to their livelihoods, but for now everyone's thoughts were with the Mackay family.

"We're thinking about them every day. Our industry's very, very close. Everyone's doing what they can to support the family and I think we'll all get through this," Ms Buchanan said.

"They're progressive, they're at the forefront of their game, they won't take this lightly and they'll do everything in their power to control the spread of something that is really quite devastating for an industry that is so important for our country."

Bananas will continue to be sent to sent to market under strict biosecurity protocols from the Tully Valley farm. ( ABC Rural: Charlie McKillop )

Wake-up call as growers come to terms with latest case

Ever since Panama TR4 reared its head in the production heartland of far north Queensland two years ago, there was an air of inevitability about its potential to spread.

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Yet the longer it went without another case being detected, the more growers hoped it might be an aberration — a one-off outbreak from which others would be spared.

That vain hope came crashing down yesterday with the confirmation samples taken from another banana farm, only a few kilometres from the original outbreak, had tested positive to TR4.

"I think we always knew it could happen to anyone of us," Ms Buchanan said.

"As bad as it is, and we've definitely had another wake-up call, I think as an industry the amount of work and effort we've put in will get us through."

Banana Growers' Council director Jade Buchanan says everyone is hurting after a second, suspected outbreak. ( Supplied )

Steve Lizzio from Liverpool River Bananas, north of Tully, said the news of another possible case was an all too familiar.

"The feeling right now I guess is no different to the feeling two and a half years ago," he said.

"It's gut wrenching, it's very disappointing and it's still very surreal.

"No matter whether you're an average or small-sized banana grower or the largest banana grower in Australia, we're a very resilient and tight group. It's our livelihoods."

Pressure builds to find a tolerant banana

The high susceptibility of the mainstay of Australian banana industry, the Williams Cavendish, to Panama TR4 and the need to develop more tolerant varieties has been well understood by the industry.

Growers know it will be hard to find a banana to rival the popularity and production qualities of the Cavendish banana. ( ABC Rural: Charlie McKillop )

Patrick Leahy, whose Tully Valley farm shares a boundary with the site of the first detection, said living next door to Panama disease added to his motivation.

His involvement with the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) had taken him to the Philippines and Taiwan where researchers are world leaders in the quest for a new TR4-tolerant banana.

He planted his first blocks of Cavendish DPM-25 and Formasana five years ago and hasn't looked back.

"It's all we've planted in the past two years, these tolerant varieties, and if that's all we can grow in the future that's what we'll do," Mr Leahy said.

But despite market acceptance in the Northern Territory, where TR4 had wiped out the banana industry a decade ago, it remained to be seen if the varieties would be commercialised on a broad scale.

"They don't taste different whatsoever and in appearance you really couldn't tell one from another," Mr Leahy said.

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However, the take-up among growers was low because the tolerant varieties were less productive and could not handle stress as well as their Williams counterpart.

"They have their drawbacks but the reason we've kept going with the Formasana is they're the most tolerant of the tolerant varieties," Mr Leahy said.