TALK to farmers in NSW at the moment and they’ll relay their problems with kangaroos.
Unsustainably high kangaroo populations across the state are placing increased pressures on both farming enterprises and the environment, with negative impacts on regional communities as a result.
With most of the state experiencing a dry winter and late spring, roos have been putting increased pressures on farmer’s water and pastures desperately needed for livestock.
With the Office of Environment and Heritage estimating a record 17 million kangaroos in NSW and tight restrictions on numbers of kangaroos that can be controlled, either privately or commercially, it is critical state and federal governments take a practical and expedient look at what can be done.
The number of tags issued to farmers who request them is grossly inadequate.
NSW Farmers has repeatedly called for increased tag numbers and licensing regulations to be relaxed to enable farmers to more effectively control populations.
NSW Farmers has also encouraged government to support the commercial kangaroo market – now the annual quotas for commercial kangaroo harvesting are not being filled.
The situation is undeniably frustrating.
The recent kangaroo “re-homing” debacle in Bathurst, currently under investigation, where a population of kangaroos was relocated only to become a mismanaged research program, only adds to general feelings of disappointment and dissatisfaction with those elected to address such significant problems.
There should not be government policy that allows relocation of significant numbers of roos that are in plague proportion across the landscape.
With other less controllable pressures bearing down on the farming sector in the coming months, nothing short of real and tangible solutions to our roo problem can be acceptable.
- Mitchell Clapham, NSW Farmers conservation and resource management committee
