How the ACT Government killed hundreds of kangaroos in Reserves around Canberra!

Early in July 2009, the ACT Government announced it would kill hundreds of kangaroos in Parks and Nature Reserves around Canberra. Below we have included some self-explanatory media reports of this terrible and totally unnecessary kill. Local groups didnt have time to mount an AAP Court appeal, and the ACT legislation is so poor that they would be unlikely to win such an appeal anyway. Local wildlife groups monitored the killing as much as possible from the area surrouonding the Reserves.

Of particular concern to everyone is the very poor performance of the four Green members of the ACT Parliament. They had supported the kangaroo kills at Belconnen and Majura, and that support has encouraged the ACT Government to undertake these latest outrages. Many Canberrans can't wait for the next ACT elections! Bye Bye the lamentable ACT Greens!

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ACT Kangaroos to be Shot in Nature Reserves

West Jerrabomberra Nature Reserve and East Jerrabomberra Grasslands will be targeted for a controlled culling of Eastern Grey Kangaroos from today, Friday, July 3. The ACT Government plan to cull up to 550 kangaroos in the two locations along with Crace Grasslands Nature Reserve and Kama South Nature Reserve. According to acting manager, parks and reserves, Daniel Iglesias the culling is necessary to protect endangered flora and fauna.

"These endangered species include the Grassland Earless Dragon, Golden Sun Moth, Striped Legless Lizard, Perunga Grasshopper and the Button Wrinklewort (a perennial herb)," he said. Mr Iglesias said the kangaroos would be humanely culled by experienced marksmen. "The cull will be conducted according to a strict code of practice that has the endorsement of all relevant authorities including the RSPCA," he said.

Rangers and security staff have been engaged to patrol the areas to ensure the safety of the public with warning signs also being installed at all entry points to the reserves. *CT

**************************************************************** Callum Brae Reserve

Kangaroo shooting started in the Callum Brae Nature Conservation Park in Canberra on Sunday night. 550 kangaroos are to be killed in five "Conservation" Reserves. Local wildlife lovers tried to monitor the shooting, and while photos of some shooters and ACT Parks and Wildlife rangers was taken, the shooting appeared to be taking place well into the Conservation Park. It's possible the shooters may also be using night vision equipment. Further down this edition of Wildlife Bytes we include some media articles.

We now know that sections of Callum Brae and possibly the other four Conservation Parks are under development proposals. After discussions with several key players and groups last week, the National Kangaroo Protection Coalition is now running a campaign asking overseas visitors to boycott Canberra when they visit Australia. There are still places in Australia where visitors can see wild kangaroos, and we will tell them where to go and see the wild ones! More details about this later. *WPAA

***************************************************************** ACT Kangaroos

The ACT Government has announced more roos will be culled from Canberra's Nature Park. The cull of up to 550 eastern greys will begin on Friday and continue until the end of July. Sites at the East and West Jerrabomberra Nature Reserve and Grasslands and Nature Reserve, the Callum Brae Nature Reserve, Crace Grasslands reserve and the Kama South Nature Reserve will be closed during the operation. The Government says the cull will be conducted according to a strict code of practice that has been endorsed by all relevant authorities including the RSPCA.

Rangers and security staff will patrol the areas to ensure public safety and warning signs have been installed at all entry points to the reserves. The news comes as the Defence Department continues its cull of roos on land at Majura. Canberra Nature Park district manager Daniel Iglesias says the kangaroos need to be culled to ensure endangered flora and fauna are protected. "We believe what we are doing is the actions of a responsible land manager," he said. *Canberra Times

***************************************************************** Reasons 'nonsense'

The announcement of the cull in has sparked a fresh round of criticism from wildlife groups. Pat O'Brien from the Wildlife Protection Association says many people will be saddened by the cull. "Their whole argument about protecting grasslands is nonsense," he said. "Nothing would surprise us with the ACT Government, they've got a license to kill."

However Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment Maxine Cooper says there is an overabundance of kangaroos. "If we want to be a bush capital with viable ecosystems we actually have to intervene and do some of these hard things," she said. She says the cull will be controversial, but it is a significant step forward in land management. "If we don't control their numbers the very eco systems that they rely on will not necessarily be there in the future," she said.* ABC

An animal welfare group says it will lead an international tourism boycott of Canberra in response to two kangaroo culls being carried out in the ACT. The National Kangaroo Protection Coalition says it has 33 animal welfare groups with thousands of members who will urge a boycott Canberra in response to the culls of 7000 kangaroos at the Majura training site and 550 at the Canberra Nature Park. The group's spokesman, Pat O'Brien, said his group planned to circulate information about the culls to fuel International anger.

He said he hoped the tourism ban would pressure Canberra's tourism industry to lobby the ACT Government to change its policy. ''We've been talking about it the last couple of days and we think it's one of the options we've got and probably the strongest option we've got to get the ACT Government to stop killing these kangaroos,'' Mr O'Brien said. He said he could not provide a list of the members in the group due to some of their relationships with the ACT Government. He said he believed the Canberra culls were based on unproven science and were motivated by an ACT Government ''hatred with kangaroos''. Tourism Minister Andrew Barr said the boycott was misguided. ''While I respect the right of those concerned with animal welfare to voice their concerns, it is not fair for them to jeopardise the livelihoods of our hard-working and environmentally sustainable ACT tourism operators and the thousands of Canberrans they employ,'' Mr Barr said. *Canberra Times *****************************************************************

Kangaroo Kill Underway

Canberra's latest roo cull was officially under way last night as news of an international tourism boycott began to go global. Links to the story emerged on international websites and National Kangaroo Protection Coalition spokesman Pat O'Brien said the group had spread the news to contacts worldwide and was working on a website, possibly titled ''something like www.dontvisitcanberra.com Canberra Business Council's tourism taskforce chairman David Marshall said the boycott was potentially dangerous in an economic downturn.

'It's a very unwise to expect the tourism industry and the general business community to be implicated in something like this when there's an economic crisis on, everyone's finding it very tough,'' he said. Mr Marshall said the move could have a significant effect on the city's tourism industry, which employs about 14,000 people. ''The last thing you need is another impediment, or any negative publicity ... and they're very good at it, as you see they've got some international coverage.''

Mr O'Brien said the coalition hoped a boycott would pressure the tourism industry into lobbying the ACT Government. But Mr Marshall said the tourism business should remain distant from the controversy. ''We're not buying into whether it's a good idea or not, that's up to [ACT Environment Commissioner] Maxine Cooper and those other experts,'' he said. ''All we're saying is they shouldn't be targeting a particular sector and expecting us to lobby on their behalf, when the economic impact of it can be very devastating for many businesses who are currently struggling.''

But Mr O'Brien was unmoved last night, saying, ''They should be [alarmed] too, they sat back [during previous culls] and they watched and they said nothing. He said the Boycott was still in the planning stage, and it would urge tourists to come to Australia and visit other destinations to see wild kangaroos, rather than Canberra. *Canberra Times

***************************************************************** Majura Kill Over

The Department of Defence has finished its cull of 7,000 kangaroos on a site in Canberra. The Department began culling the kangaroos in early May saying they had reached unsustainable levels at the Majura training area. About 4,000 animals were culled in nine days before the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal granted a temporary stay on the cull while it heard an appeal from animal rights group. Animal Liberation challenged the granting of the cull licence, arguing there was sufficient inaccuracy in the assessment of kangaroo numbers on the land. In late June the tribunal dismissed the appeal, saying there was compelling evidence that the animals were damaging native grasslands. The Defence Department says it restarted the cull on the same day and finished killing the animals just over a week ago. *ABC

***************************************************************** Callum Brae Kill Over

The Callum Brae shooting seems to be finished although a couple of shots have since been heard. Most people have been devastated by the shooting. We have photos and incident reports which will go online. Special thanks to those brave souls who drove around looking for the shooters, and those who walked around the perimeters of the Reserves. We know now that as Callum Brae kangaroos are being killed in the Nature Reserve, a couple of hundred metres down the road they have swapped Block 17, section 102 with a developer for a long stay caravan park.

This land is "recognised as grassland habitat for the endangered grassland earless dragon, and any development by the lessee on the site is likely to have a significant impact on that threatened species." (ACT LA Hansard) The development application which is currently nailed to the fence of this block is to dig it up and install sewer, stormwater and water pipes. "The potential future development of block 17, section 102 and associated damage and/or destruction of grassland earless dragon habitat on that site also appear to be mitigated to some degree by the proposed establishment of two grassland and woodland nature reserves in the Jerrabomberra Valley, around 200 hectares each, which may promote ongoing survival of the grassland earless dragon." (ACT LA Hansard)

So the ACT Government is killing the kangaroos on Nature Reserves that are overrun with rabbits, hares, foxes and rubbish to ostensibly save a few lizards, while allowing big development to occur on the same grasslands! The four ACT Greens have supported the Government on killing the Canberra kangaroos. The ACT Governement is now in public relations overload, with the ACT spindoctors trying to justify the kill.

***************************************************************** Shot Kangaroos Found

The ACT Government has started an investigation into the shooting and dumping of around 20 kangaroos in Canberra's south. A land owner found the decomposing eastern grey kangaroos at the weekend beside a horse paddock near Curtin. Parks and Reserves acting manager Daniel Iglesias says the killings were not part of the Government's recent cull of 500 kangaroos in the Canberra Nature Reserve. However he says it appears it was done by someone who had a licence. "Whilst the animals were culled as part of a licensed operation they weren't disposed of properly," he said.

"People operate in keeping with their licence conditions, they employ marksmen who are experts at what they do, they know the procedure very, very well and this is an isolated incident." Mr Iglesias says disposing of carcasses properly is a condition of any licence to shoot kangaroos in the ACT. "Traditionally what happens is that we'll dig a pit prior to commencement of the culling operation and the animals are put straight in," he said. "I don't recall any incident like this in the past." *ABC

***************************************************************** Weeds?

The ACT Government will spend $2 million on controlling weeds this financial year. ACT Environment Minister Simon Corbell says weeds have the potential to damage the environment, affect primary industries and interfere with local waterways. Mr Corbell says the Territory's new weed strategy will guide the management of weeds for the next 10 years. "The focus will be on those areas that are most vulnerable, for example, in our native grassland areas," he said. "We know from the recent Commissioner for Sustainability and Environment Report that weeds, along with kangaroos, are one of the major threats to the viability of those native ecosystems." *ABC

Ed Comment; What can we say? Putting roads, shopping centres and houses on top of those grassland ecosystems doesnt help either!

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ACT Kangaroos Buried

The 19 kangaroo bodies that were shot in the Canberra horse paddocks have been buried. The bumbling ACT Environment department are now making excuses about how this breach of the "Code of Practice" has never happened before, and they will make sure it doesnt happen again. Meanwhile the ACT Environment department have reiterated their intention of killing kangaroos every year in the Canberra Nature Parks to maintain what they call "sustainable numbers" of kangaroos. *WPAA

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Now all the kangaroos are gone....

A kangaroo kill at fenced Thompsons Lake, South of Perth in Western Australia three years ago has gone too far, say local residents. The kill was supported by the local Conservation Council, and a few other organisations, who claimed the kangaroos were damaging the environment. There was a strong local protest, but police harrased the protestors, and the kill went ahead.

Its uncertain how many kangaroos were shot, but the WA Environment Department at the time put the mob number at 450, claiming the area would only support 22 kangaroos. But this week the Department said 1032 kangaroos had been shot at Thompsons Lake between May 2006 and March 2007. And now, according to locals, the kangaroos have all but disappeared, who say the "cull went too far". Is this what we can expect to see around Canberra in few years time? *WPAA

The ACT economy is quite vulnerable and currently showing up as struggling. It has few revenue raising measures of substance and so one of the main ones it relies on is sale of property for housing and commercial development. The precious grasslands and other 'endangered' species (which of course also exist just over the border in NSW) don't really count in any of this and are just used as a convenient excuse to get rid of the kangaroos to enable these property sales to occur (note Belconnen).

For example, we know the Belconnen site was obtained by the ACT Government from Defence for no cost but a developer has estimated its sale value at $100m. This is money in the pocket of the ACT Government from developers when it is sold. They of course also receive land tax on every block that is sold as well as the flow-on revenues from the house building process.

The whole business of land and housing estate development is a short term financial boost to the act government. They are not really interested in the long term (few politicians are). For example, the centre piece of Canberra is lake Burley Griffen. This year it has been closed to activities more times than it has been open due to algal blooms. During the recent World Environment day celebrations Canberra refused to sign the green city pact that many other cities around the world did (eg Sydney did)

Tourism has been another income earner in the ACT but they have bungled it for years. When tourists want to see wildlife in the ACT they are bundled off to the awful National Zoo and Aquarium where they might see an aged kangaroo from a distance and if you are very lucky the backside of a koala all for the entry fee of $70. Most tourists to Canberra go away quite disappointed that they see no wildlife close up.

Most tourists to Canberra therefore only go to the usual boring monoliths (parliament house, war memorial, national museum, etc) and do not see wildlife. We know wildlife is the second most important reason international tourists come to Australia (barrier reef/ Cairns/ Port Douglas) number one. International tourists typically stay longer than the domestic tourist and so capturing them is important.

The strategy to attack the tourism credentials of Canberra through its attitude to wildlife is well placed to have a major impact. All we are doing is letting potential tourists know the truth about the hypocrisy of Canberra tourism. Any loss of tourism jobs is because of their actions - we are simply telling the world what Canberra is afraid to say in the glossy brochures.

However, we may also attack canberra's green credentials as well internationally. For example they are trying to get approval from UNESCO to be accepted as a biosphere reserve. Globally there are some 500 such biosphered registered through UNESCO. They are meant to promote sustainable development in line with the Kyoto protocol.

In October 2007 The Standing Committee on Planning and Environment of the ACT Government presented a report “The Proposed Nomination of the ACT as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve" (Report 30), recommending that the nomination proceed. My understanding is that this is yet to get a green light to proceed. Have a look at this site for more background: http://www.natsoc.org.au/html/projects/br.htm

The Man and the Biosphere initiative is designed to demonstrate how a geographic area can reconcile economic development, social development and environmental protection through partnerships between people and nature. Biosphere reserves are select areas of terrestrial and coastal ecosystems that offer practical ways to reconcile modern development with the conservation of biodiversity. Before UNESCO designates a biosphere reserve, local people and organizations must have demonstrated their commitment to these principles.

A biosphere reserve should meet three basic criteria: contribute to the conservation of landscapes, ecosystems, species and genetic variation; foster economic and human development which is socio-culturally and ecologically sustainable; provide support for research, monitoring, education and information exchange related to local, national and global issues of conservation and development.

It would be difficult to reconcile that the brutality meted out to the kangaroo can be seen as morally consistent with these criteria.

Below, A shot Callum Brae mother kangaroo with her dead joey. According to the ACT Government around 450 kangaroos were killed in two Reserves.