More than 500 Victorian livestock producers responded to Agriculture Victoria’s livestock predation survey issued in July, providing information about the levels and frequency of livestock attacks on their properties, effectiveness of control methods and the impact of livestock predation on farmers and their communities.
Of the 500 survey respondents, about 72 per cent were located in eastern Victoria, and three per cent in the northwest.
The survey showed that livestock predation is an ongoing concern to sheep farmers whose properties border public land.
Eighty four per cent of producers said they were using a mix of lethal and non-lethal control methods to manage predation with the most common forms of control methods being shooting, 1080 ground baiting, trapping, farm hygiene, exclusion fencing and guardian animals.
The unprotection order will continue in northeast and eastern Victoria, where the control of dingoes on private land and along public land boundaries is permitted until January 1, 2028.
Environment Minister Steve Dimopoulos, who announced the continuation of the orders with Agriculture Minister Ros Spence, said they were achieving balance.
“We are striking the right balance between protecting our vulnerable dingo populations while giving farmers the ability to protect their livestock,” he said.
“We will regularly engage to ensure settings continue to achieve this balance.
“We’re supporting traditional owners to care for country – and providing more resources to analyse statewide dingo population trends and effective conservation management measures.”
Lawloit’s Alan Bennett, who has property on Murrayville Road, bordering the Big Desert, said the wild dog protection order had been an ‘ongoing saga’ since March.
“It had a massive impact, starting right at the time when we were getting dog attacks,” he said.
“We have probably lost 100 sheep since March, we could have lost thousands, so we don’t know what the true impact could have been.
“We are waiting on contractors to put exclusion fences up, but that just moves the problem – they just pop out somewhere else, at neighbouring properties or on open land.”
Mr Bennett said accredited trappers were used to control wild dogs on his property prior to the protection order.
“The control program was very specific, it takes generations – decades – to learn the skills to trap wild dogs. They don’t lure them with baits or use poison, they set the traps up and to get the dogs to walk over them.
“The State Government said predation numbers are very low, about nine or 10 a year, and that’s true because we’ve had an active and specific management plan.Wild dogs are coming onto our properties looking for water, but because the season has been dry, they’re going to hang around, and they will learn they can eat sheep.
“We’re not against protecting them in the Big Desert, but they’re suggesting population is low, but their estimates are between 40 and 230, and they’re working off the low number to justify this decision.
“Their research is very limited across the 700,000 hectares, they need more time and more cameras to be able to do more homework on numbers.”
Mr Bennett said he was happy for the unprotection order to remain in the east of the state.
“They face way higher issues than we do, their terrain allows bigger populations of wild dogs,” he said.
“But for us, what was an efficient, effective and targeted program has been lost, seemingly to a political decision.
“I think it’s a lose-lose, to be honest, the implications for these dogs wandering from the Big Desert, it’s an open book that could have catastrophic consequences that people just don’t realise yet.”
The Victorian National Parks Association is ‘deeply disappointed’ by the government’s decision to continue culling dingoes in the east and northeast of the state, with parks and nature campaigner Jordan Crook saying dingoes were an important part of Australian ecosystems.
“Continuing to kill them will see the continued decline of our ecosystems,” he said.
“The government must not sit on their hands until 2028 to make a better decision.
“At minimum, a heap more work needs to be done to trial and embed alternative solutions.”
For more details about the order, people can visit wildlife.vic.gov.au, and for farmers’ support visit agriculture.vic.gov.au.
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