By Callum Ludwig
Yarra Ranges Council will formally request to be exempt from the Kangaroo Harvesting Program (KHP) after a long-awaited decision was made during the Tuesday 8 April council meeting.
Having been delayed to this month to seek more information from the state government, councillors fast-tracked the discussion to the start of the meeting with many in the gallery attending for the decision.
With Mayor Jim Child stepping out due to a conflict of interest, Deputy Mayor Richard Higgins invited local animal advocate Peter Preuss, who has led the charge for the council to withdraw from the KHP, to speak.
Mr Preuss thanked the council again for letting him speak on the issue of commercial shooting in the Yarra Valley and said he wanted to emphasise the word ‘commercial’.
Some people want to kill kangaroos, some people think they need to, that’s not what we’re asking you to challenge, now the Authority To Control Wildlife (ATCW) can get a permit very easily for over 100 animals, 100 different species and kangaroos are one of them,” he said.
“The permit system that we have, the permit system of authority to kill, is the best thing that we can possibly ask for because it limits the number of kangaroos that are shot, it limits the number of birds, cockatoos, anything that’s killed by a need, not greed basis, as soon as you throw the greed in there, you’ve got a very different situation.”
The Victorian Kangaroo Alliance (VKA), which first formed as Save the Kinley Kangas during the development of the Kinley estate in Lilydale, conducted a quick survey over two weeks from 2 March to 16 March in preparation for the meeting to gather some thoughts from the Yarra Ranges community.
The VKA also sought comments from Aboriginal Elder and academic Aunty Janet Turpie-Johnstone and wildlife veterinarian Dr Natasha Bassett, who are both Yarra Ranges residents.
“For those of us with connections to this Country Kangaroos are Kin, and as members of our families we are expected to protect them, as a resident in the Yarra Ranges, it strikes me as contradictory that we have to lobby and debate an issue such as the welfare of this endemic species, a species that has inhabited these lands for millions of years.” Ms Turpie-Johnstone said.
“Unfortunately, my direct professional experience of commercial harvesters (and the downstream results of their operations) has been nothing short of alarming. I have personally witnessed the trail of brutality left after harvesters have been in operation,” Dr Bassett said.
A Google Form was shared on numerous community Facebook groups across the region and garnered 255 responses, 193 from residents of the shire, 50 that were regular domestic visitors and a few others that either work in the shire, live in a neighbouring LGA, did not disclose where they live or were potential international visitors.
173 (67.8 per cent) did not support commercial shooting activity, 67 (26.2 per cent) supported it, 6 (two per cent) were ambivalent and 9 (three per cent) were unsure. When asked if Yarra Ranges Council should advocate to be removed from the harvest zone, 176 (69 per cent) were for, 70 (27 per cent) were against, 7 (two per cent) were unsure and two people indicated that any decision should conditional, such as being based on a determined population size.
Walling Ward Councillor Len Cox OAM, who put forward the motion, said the kangaroo is without any doubt the best-known animal that belongs to Australia.
“It’s awful to say, but Australia’s got a terrible record of losing our wildlife; we’ve had over 20 marsupials become extinct since European settlement in this country and that in itself is an absolute tragedy, we don’t want to add to that anymore,” he said.
“We’re supposed to know better now, and we certainly don’t want to add kangaroos to that number. the trouble is that killing them is beset by a lot of illegal activity from overshooting, from unsupervised and profit driven, and that isn’t a good reason to keep shooting the roos.”
Comments left in support of commercial shooting in the VKA survey expressed concerns about population size, causing accidents on roads and destroying farmers’ fields while those against it cited cruelty concerns, appreciation of and need to protect native wildlife and potential tourism opportunities as their reasons.
Councillors each took their turn to weigh in on the motion:
“We know that people have the ability to kill those kangaroos themselves on their own property without the harvesters coming in but if this is done on a grand scale it will ultimately become the way of what is existing now in the Wimmera and that we will not have kangaroos in this area,” Billanook Ward Councillor Tim Heenan said.
Lyster Ward Councillor Peter Mcilwain said he ‘spent many hours’ investigating and it came down to ‘three basic issues’ and whether the KHP passed moral, management and sustainability standards. He found that the ACTW permit system had a ‘much higher test’ for animal control, the KPH ‘has led to poor outcomes’ for animal welfare and advised while he supports the motion, he did not support claims ‘made against the science’ about kangaroo populations as a whole being endangered.
“I’ve read things and imagined things based on what I’ve read that I will never unsee and change requires discomfort; it requires us to feel extremely uncomfortable to make the decisions that are best so I’m guaranteed never to change my mind on this issue,” Ryrie Ward Councillor Fiona McAllister said.
“Tonight I read out the acknowledgement of country and the very last part of that, the last sentence, ‘We proudly share custodianship to care for country together’’, some people look at that as being the lands and waters but I actually look at that as being all the animals as well… if we’re going to care for country under our acknowledgement we need to look at it all from a big picture point of view,” Streeton Ward Councillor Jeff Marriott said.
“I don’t believe the data is being misrepresented. I think that anyone involved would not want to risk their licenses, their permits and their reputation and the economic incentive is there for the commercial shooters to turn in their kangaroos…I don’t think that this motion should be before council; personally, I think this belongs in the halls of Spring Street,” Melba Ward Councillor Mitch Mazzarella said.
Cr Higgins only spoke to the motion to explain his reasoning for deferring the original motion back in February and Chandler Ward Councillor Gareth Ward did not speak to the motion.
The motion was carried unanimously, with many members of the gallery applauding the decision.
