‘No option’ but to cull roos

The Pastoria East Wildlife Shelter nursed kangaroos back to health after last year’s Lancefield fire, which started after a Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning burn got out of control.

DELWP has defended its decision to allow the cull to go ahead.

In a statement to the Bendigo Advertiser, the department stated it had engaged with the wildlife shelter and the property owner, but no other solution could be found.

“DELWP officers have spoken to both the applicant and the owner of the adjacent wildlife shelter and have listened to their concerns,” the statement said.

“DELWP officers have worked with the applicant to exhaust all practicable non-lethal methods of kangaroo control on the landholder’s property.

“DELWP officers have previously offered advice on alternative release locations for the rehabilitated kangaroos.”

Pastoria East Wildlife Shelter owners Christine Litchfield and Marcus Ward described the department’s decision as “heartbreaking”.

Mr Ward admitted over the weekend there was an issue with kangaroo numbers, but said they needed to be given time to implement other, less drastic, control methods.

“We know that something has to be done but (the department) were unwilling to give us a stay of execution,” he said.

“The idea that you’re going to kill kangaroos to stop this problem is unlikely to work completely.

“There will be a short period of time when the kangaroos are scared off and a lot are killed but … they will come back, so our suggestion was to build a fence that excludes them which you’d think would be the most sensible thing to do.

“Then in the short-term we would also do things to change their behaviour so they don’t see that as their habitat … using scare guns and horns and lights and a roo guard, which sends out a weird noise.”

Ms Litchfield said she was struggling to come to terms with the thought that many of the kangaroos she had nursed back to health after the fire would be killed.

The department said a decision had to be made given the time of year.

“It is a critical time of year for the applicant to germinate his pasture and therefore the issuing of an Authority to Control Wildlife is time critical to ensure a successful growing season,” the statement said.

“It is an ongoing challenge for DELWP to manage areas of conflicting land use. The aim of the ATCW system is to strike a balance between the conservation of native wildlife and productive land use.”