SINCE the demise of the Russian export market for kangaroo meat, which collapsed in 2008, roo populations have boomed.
A perfect storm of factors, such as cash-flow stagnation due to drought, high labour costs and poor market demand have created an environment where this native to the outback is now eating itself, and farmers, out of house and home.
To do nothing is too destructive to the land. To act is expensive.
Forced into action, Coolabah graziers Noel and Lynette Dunn have installed high cost exclusion fencing on their property "Bundong", to protect their pastures and water resources.
"A lot of time and money goes into excluding kangaroos," Mr Dunn said.
"We are running as many kangaroos and wildlife as we are profitable livestock.
"As dry times come and go we find ourselves without feed and feral animals play a huge role in that.
"So we were running into trouble, and noticing we were losing feed to these animals that we don't make a dollar out of."
The Dunns have installed about 50 kilometres of fencing at their own cost to encompass 6500 hectares of their 8500ha property.
Like most farmers in the region, the Dunns employed shooters to cull the roos inside their barrier fence.
Fencing contractors charge $4000 a kilometre to erect a fence and $7 a steel post (about every three metres).
Despite the cost of installation, Mr Dunn said the exclusion fence continued to keep roo numbers down both in and around his property.
"You can notice it driving the Coolabah to Brewarrina highway that runs for about eight kilometres along our fenced boundary. There isn't a roo to be seen," Mr Dunn said.
"A lot of exclusion fencing is happening out this way."
The Dunns' daughters run the neighbouring "Mayfield", and plan to follow their parents' lead and install exclusion fencing in the near future.
Roo shooters have been disappearing from the local landscape since the district's chiller, to which harvesters delivered their carcases, shut down four to five years ago.
"There used to be two shooters in Coolabah and for the past two years we haven't had any. The chillers have been shut for a good four to five years."
He hoped for a return to a profitable roo market, like the one which exists for feral goats, where farmers would get a return for their control efforts.
"Imagine if we could turn a profit from kangaroos as well, we wouldn't have to spend hundreds of thousands in fencing to keep them out," he said.
North Star farmer Will Coulton said the kangaroo problem was every bit as bad at his property, where he had resorted to shelling out wages to lure a kangaroo harvester onto "Getta Getta", his 16,000ha mixed farming operation.
Typically, kangaroo harvesters are not paid by the landowners, but rather rely on profits from the carcases they supply to local chillers.
"We have had a lot of trouble with kangaroos through the years," Mr Coulton said.
"We have a full time licensed local shooter that shoots three times a week in the colder months and in that time he would cull 200 head of kangaroos a week."
Mr Coulton said he needed to take matters into his own hands because the profits on offer for a kangaroo harvester were meagre.
"Kangaroos on my place are so bad they need to be culled, (but) our shooter can't make a full time income from just selling carcases," he said.
"The current market is just not sustainable."
Western Merino graziers Frank and Rochelle McKillop, "Melrose", have invested heavily in an exclusion fence that towers above their flock in an effort to exclude kangaroos.
They are in the process of fencing their land on The Marra, west of the Macquarie Marshes.
Initially the fence will protect 2830ha of their 12,000ha property with expensive exclusion fencing - which in their case means a 170 centimetre high, 14 line, tight exclusion fence.
Mr McKillop said the fence costs him $5.50 a metre for materials and $5 for labour and clearing.
"To give you an idea of what it looks like, the neighbours call it Alcatraz," he said.
"Nothing can go underneath it, and nothing can go over it. We just can't control (kangaroos) any other way.
"We are running as many kangaroos as we are sheep (and) we want a total barrier."
Mr McKillop expects to extend his exclusion fence after the initial 26km run is complete.
"At least 40km will need to be fenced; we haven't worked it out yet - its a frighting figure cost- wise, but it needs to be done," he said.
"Where we have already put the fence up it's been brilliant."
A kangaroo harvester visits the McKillop's property four nights a fortnight and recently culled at a rate averaging 60 kangaroos a night.
To assist the property's recovery the McKillops had also begun a ponding program to encourage the re-establishment of Mitchell grass and salt bush in the exclusion fenced areas.
"It will be interesting to see how the country responds after the fencing has been done," Mr McKillop said.