It
seems the Government can't get its story straight?
As
you see from the photo below, nobody is buying the story about starving
kangaroos at Googong Dam.
This
picture was taken the day before the protest and shows one of a number
of healthy females that we saw
come and go as they pleased through a hole in the fence at the
main gate
to
the dam site.
So what's going on?
One
of the key issues in this matter is the lack of data. There is no short
or long term management plan for Googong Dam. There is no
data on why killing the kangaroos will stop the erosion. There
is no assessment of other sources of erosion or pollution. We do know
that
it costs 10 times as much to treat Googong water, than it does
for any other catchment in the area.
There has not been an environmental impact study (EIS) done, or any
other study that we can determine. We do now know that blue-green
algae
is an
issue after it was slipped at the meeting with Environment ACT.
Apparently the dam
was infested with algae last summer.
There appears to be no attempt to deal with runoff from adjacent
grazing properties. In Queensland cane farmers are required to
build contour
banks and direct polluted runoff into settlement ponds before it
is released into creeks and rivers. Yet here at Googong we have
all this
manure and farm chemicals going directly into a city water supply.
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Photo:One
of the adjacent sheep properties at Googong Dam (this image
was
taken the day before the protest).
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Fishing is permitted in the dam area, and visitation is high. Yet
the kangaroos are being blamed for all this mismanagement and
between 800
and 1100 kangaroos will be killed to try to address issues which
have little or nothing to do with them!
Erosion
The reason given for the kill is that the kangaroos are causing
erosion and that will impact on the Canberra water supply. We
can understand
the erosion concerns, but kangaroos?
Soft
footed animals such as kangaroos do not cause erosion. So what causes
the erosion at Googong Dam? Adjacent properties have cattle and sheep
on
them. Some
of those
properties are
heavily overgrazed,
and have an inch or so of cattle and sheep manure in the paddocks.
As well, people go fishing in the dam. We have suggested fencing,
revegetation, planting sacrifice crops, Guardtex, and even
temporarily feeding the
kangaroos away from the dam.
But no, the government has rejected all those options, and
intends to kill the least of the problem, hoping a fairy
with a magic
wand will come along and remedy the real causes. They used
to say the
Democrats lived with the fairies at the bottom of the garden.
Now that the Democrats
have moved out of the garden, the ACT government appears
to have moved in.
Treatment of Joeys
The Federal Code of Practice (COP), an
unenforceable guide for shooters, recommends that in-pouch joeys
be decapitated
with
a sharp instrument
or have their heads bashed in with a heavy object.
This
COP is currently under Review, by the managers of the various State
Kangaroo Management Programs.
The Review
has been
sitting for over two years, and yet a Draft document
has not been produced for public discussion.
In this instance wildlife carers have asked whether
the joeys can be collected and handed over to local
carers
for rearing
and rehabilitation.
Unfortunately that would not be allowable under the
regulations governing the commercial Industry. Any
such changes to
the Code can only be
made
through the review process. Then there is the issue
of where can they be released. With shooters now
being allowed
to
kill kangaroos
in Protected
Areas, they will almost certainly be killed eventually
anyway.
For decades local carers have been releasing rehabilitated
orphaned and injured joeys into the Reserve at
Googong. Now those animals
are being killed. After all the work, expense and
heartache of getting joeys to the release stage,
now these animals
are being
killed. No
wonder people are angry.
There
have been suggestions that the COP should be amended to specify that
joeys should be killed
with
a lethal
injection when
the mother
is shot. Such an amendment may take years to
go through the Review process, and it doesn’t address
many other issues that arise.
The bottom line is that there is no monitoring
of the COP, so it is impossible to determine
what actually
happens
in the field.
Media and Letters
Reply from Minister Jon Stanhope to letters
of concern.
Thank you for your representation of 13 July
2004 regarding the culling of kangaroos within
the Googong
Foreshores
reserve. On
the basis
of the conditions and kangaroo numbers at
Googong Foreshores a cull of
800 kangaroos is being undertaken at Googong
Foreshores to protect the Googong water catchment.
The Googong Foreshores reserve acts as the
final filter for water entering Googong
Dam. As a result
of prolonged
drought,
the kangaroos
at Googong
have reduced the groundcover to a level
that presents a serious threat to the quality
of water entering
the Dam.
If left
unmanaged, parts
of the area will be reduced to a combination
of bare dirt and faecal pellets, which
will be washed
into
the dam when
the
next heavy
rains finally come.
I have no intention of allowing this situation
to arise. Conducting a cull at this time
is considered the most
humane and effective
option to ensure kangaroo numbers in
this area are
reduced to a manageable
level. The cull will be undertaken by
professional accredited shooters under permits issued
by the NSW Government and
in accordance with
the national code of practice for the
humane destruction of kangaroos.
This process is being closely monitored
by the ACT Government Veterinarian
to ensure that this
occurs.
I am advised that
the kangaroos within
Googong are starving. Environment ACT
rangers report that the animals are
in a very poor
state and are
now grazing
on plants
that are
not within their usual diets. The NSW
Government recently commenced the
commercial harvesting of kangaroos
on a trial
basis in the south-eastern region of
NSW due to the high
numbers
of kangaroos
in the area.
My Government has elected to trial
this system in this situation as
Googong is
within NSW.
The protection
of the water catchment
is of
paramount importance. My government
will not hesitate to take whatever
steps are
necessary to protect
the integrity
of our
city's water
supply. Other suggested options,
such as building
a
fence to exclude kangaroos
from the entire foreshores area,
are simply unfeasible and unfair to adjacent
landholders.
The decision to cull kangaroos in
the Googong Foreshores reserve was
not
made lightly.
However, in these
times of severe drought
and water
restrictions, this is considered
the only prudent response to the
threat
that the
kangaroos pose
to our only water
catchment that
was untouched
by the 2003 bushfires. . Thank you
for raising this matter. I
trust I have addressed your concerns.
Yours sincerely
Jon Stanhope
MLA Minister for the Environment.
