Shire Councillors at their 8 August meeting voted to write to the State Government to demand that the Peninsula be removed from the state commercial kangaroo harvesting program. As reported in the Southern Peninsula News, the purpose of the letter is “to further inform the state government of the urgent need to protect the viability of kangaroos on the peninsula”.

Why is this good news?

Kangaroo numbers:

• A detailed survey conducted for the Shire over a decade ago, estimated the Peninsula population at 3,500 kangaroos
• A second 2021 survey using citizen-science observations and ground surveys loaded ino iNaturalist under Count Your Mob (CYM) found 2,500 kangaroos with a potential range of up to 3,000
• The state assessment of Peninsula kangaroo numbers in 2021 by the Arthur Rylah Institute (ARI) was 7,000 and this increased slightly in 2022.

The issues:

• No Peninsula observations have been used in any of the ARI estimates, which are based on an extrapolation of aircraft-observed kangaroo density from a limited number of flights over Gippsland east of Westernport
• ARI disregarded the CYM observational assessment of kangaroo numbers without reason
• ARI applied the mean Gippsland density to all of the Peninsula outside of the heavily-vegetated areas of Greens Bush and Arthurs Seat – in other words, they assumed that there is the same density kangaroos in Mornington, Rosebud, Sorrento, etc, as there as is in far eastern Gippsland
• These and other issues were pointed out to ARI at meetings in 2021 – but zero notice was taken and the 2022 estimates used exactly the same flawed methodology.

Impact on Agriculture:

• Kangaroos do have an impact on agriculture, but available scientific studies point toward this being small compared to the considerable benefits that arise from careful nurturing of the ecological services provided by our natural environment
• Let’s take an example of the Peninsula cattle industry: Shire estimates place the cattle population at 15,000-20,000; one steer eats the same amount of grass as 10-15 kangaroos; so our 2,500-3,000 kangaroos impact potential cattle numbers by at most 1-1.5%
• Although it is difficult to quantify, there is no doubt that Peninsula agriculture gains a substantial benefit from the large tourism industry – our local mobs help attract these tourists, as is clearly demonstrated by the use of Ruby the kangaroo by Tourism Australia
• Recent compilations of studies by Landcare has demonstrated that careful attention to bush patches and properly-designed shelterbelts increases productivity by more than 20% and substantially reduces the impacts of climate change, especially in drought years – implementing these improvements would far exceed the direct impacts of kangaroos and other wildlife.

Impact on Kangaroos:

The great danger in the kangaroo harvesting approach lies in the way a single number is allocated for all of Gippsland and professional shooters are licensed to take any number below this from anywhere within the entire region. Notice of numbers is only provided to the government after the event. The current allocations for Gippsland are around 17,000 animals – thus, our population of 2,500-3,000 kangaroos legally could be obliterated without there being any checks or balances.

What if Populations Reach Destructive Levels Locally?

Removing the Peninsula from the Harvest Program does not affect the ability of landholders to protect themselves from serious issues that may arise from kangaroos or any other wildlife. The proper approach here is to apply for an Authority To Control Wildlife (ATCW) permit. These have substantial issues also, but they are at least issued on the basis of sufficient reasons being provided and include inspection where deemed needed.

– Article by Greg Holland. Note that there is a diversity of views within Landcare on kangaroos and the information provided here is my responsibility alone. All information is factual and derived from published studies, a list of which is available on request.

Postscript: Thanks to the Shire initiative, we were removed from the kangaroo harvest program.