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Herb Extract Three Far North Queensland coffee growers have won a 12-year legal battle against the Queensland Government.The Supreme Court in Cairns has ordered the government pay the Atherton Tableland growers $9.1 million in compensation after their crops were destroyed in 1996 by a spraying program targeting Papaya Fruit Fly.Nat Jaques lost 50,000 trees to the sprays and he says the Department of Primary Industries was found to be negligent."The frequency of sprays was one of the impacts - they did ten consecutive sprays over ten weeks," he says."Concentration was another factor, the solvent used in the spray program was another factor."A combination of all ended up destroying our production and trees."They were aware of the damage they had caused but refused to pay any compensation, so we had no alternative but to take legal action."