Long paddock love soured amid confusion, fears of route misuse

Amid allegations travelling stock routes are being misused during the intense NSW drought, and widespread confusion over what the rules are exactly, producers at the Association’s Sydney conference were divided on how TSRs should be accessed, who pays for their upkeep, and whether some should be sold off.

Stock routes are tracks of crown land that serve as transport corridors for livestock and, increasingly, grazing resources for farmers who have the right permit. 

A widely-held suspicion that TSRs are being abused across the state – in no small part due to the ongoing dry – was a major factor behind NSW Farmers delegates voting for changes that would ensure drovers adhere to the rules in their grazing permits.

Feed is certainly scarce, and earlier this month state MPs were urging LLS and local councils to find and open up more public land to let graziers feed their stock. 

Also hanging over everything is state government’s final review into the future management of its travelling stock route system, which is due to be handed down in the coming months.

It was previously flagged for release in early 2018. 

The great stock route debate at NSW Farmers conference came in the wake of an LLS-NSW Police operation in the Riverina last week that clocked a mob of 1000 on the road at Tallimba allegedly three times the size it was permitted to be.

Police are also investigating two incidents of alleged animal cruelty.

“This type of behaviour is a very serious offence as it impinges on our customer’s rights to use the TSRs,” Riverina LLS general manager Rob Kelly said.

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Also adding to the confusion was an incident last month when LLS apologised to a Monaro drover for telling him to take his 500 Hereford-Angus crossbreeds off the road within seven days, when he was two-months in to a six-month journey that he had the appropriate permits for.  

At the Sydney NSW Farmers conference, a couple of New England branches moved that the State Drover’s Code be reviewed.

Motions put forward by the Cooma branch, however, were sent back to committee after a back and forth between members.

This included moves for treasury to fully fund Local Land Services to manage TSRs, and for TSRs without high environmental conservation value, or continuing livestock use, to be able to be sold off to adjoining landholders, with money put back into management of remaining routes.

A successful motion asked for LLS rates contributed by producers to be quarantined for biosecurity and farm profitability purposes only, with members saying it was hard to determine the proportion of producers’ LLS rates currently going towards this aspect.

NSW Farmers policy director Kathy Rankin said there was certainly a lack of clarity on TSRs at the moment – including who has access to them, what permits are needed, and how they are meant to be used.

“They were historically used to move stock, but are increasingly used for grazing areas.

“People are also seeking for grazing rights on the side of some roads.

“That’s a process that starts with an application to LLS, but councils have to give approval.

“With the drought, we certainly would like to see a streamlined approval process, which a number of Central West Councils have taken on board.”

Nearly 500,000 hectares, about a quarter of the state’s stock reserve network, is through the east and centre of the state. That resource is managed by LLS, and is considered far more widely-used and valuable than the 1.5-million hectare TSR network managed by Department of Industry in the Western Division.   

As part of its interm review into TSRs, state government has mapped a proposed TSR highway from Queensland to Victoria, using the more frequented LLS routes through central NSW. 

Also as part of that that interim review, about 73 per cent of the 423 responses from Western Division farmers and leaseholders told government the region’s travelling stock routes should be revoked if they haven’t been used for droving in a long time.

Back in 2015, drovers and graziers were worried government’s pending Crown land reforms would see rules tweaked so lesser-used stock reserves could be dismantled and taken off government’s books, or cashed in.

Government would not say if the plan is to have the 11 LLS regions managing their own TSRs, similarly to weed and pest plans, only that it was “committed to identifying and preserving a viable, well maintained and connected TSR network for the future.” 

Meanwhile, the Young Witness reported this week that Hilltops Shire Councillors rejected a permit for the temporary grazing of stock on roadsides that would have required stock owners to ‘hotwire’ grazing areas and pick up excrement from the road pavement.

“The permit was presented to councillors by staff at this month’s council meeting following concerns that Local Land Services was “rubber stamping” stock grazing permits and council needed more control to ensure local roads were protected and safety issues were addressed,” the paper reported. 

“Following much debate about unnecessarily creating extra paper work, re-inventing the wheel and putting extra work on staff the Council voted to ask LLS to inform it when it receives a request to graze stock on roads in Hilltops.”