A bomb threat forced the evacuation of staff from all Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry facilities across the nation yesterday.
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The bomb threat was called in just after midday, forcing an evacuation of the Department's 4598 full-time staff.
The Department is based at 77 locations across Australia, 35 of which are in remote areas.
A spokesman for the Department said the evacuation was only brief, and that management and police assessed all the buildings and ''advised staff accordingly''.
''Staff safety is our No1 priority, which is why this action was taken,'' the spokesman said.
ACT Policing attended the department's offices in the national capital even after the buildings were searched by departmental staff.
No trace of explosives were found and staff were soon allowed to return to their offices.
Neither the department nor ACT Policing could comment on the possible motivation behind the bomb threat.
ACT Policing is continuing to investigate the incident.
