10,000 reasons why you dont want to visit Canberra....Dont Visit Canberra.
It started with Googong Dam in 2003. The ACT Government, headed by Labor Chief Minisiter Jon Stanhope, decided to kill 1200 kangaroos that were grazing around the edge of Googong Dam. They claimed the kangaroos were causing erosion at the Dam. Subsequent protest action by concerned community groups clearly showed the erosion and faecel contamination was caused by overgrazing of sheep on adjacent properties, and the kangaroos were a handy scapegoat. Protests by the wildlife groups made International headlines. Read more; click here! Dont Visit Canberra! Then there was Belconnen, a no longer used military radio station, and had a resident population of 500 grey kangaroos. It was aquired for nothing by the ACT Government, who wanted to decontaminate the site, and build luxury housing there, worth many millions of dollars. Clearly the kangaroos had to go, and the Government first claimed they were starving. They were not. So then they claimed the kangaroos were responsible for the demise of several small species who lived in the grass. It was the first time the Canberra government had expressed concerns about these species, although they had previously allowed supermarkets, housing developments and carparks to be built on these same habitats. The Belconnen kangaroo kill that ultimately took place was the most horrific kangaroo massacre ever seen in Australia in recent years. Read more; click here! Dont Visit Canberra! After that came Majura, an Army rifle range. Part of Majura had been proposed for airport development, including a 4 lane highway and huge warehouses for freight dispersal, including a possible "Very Fast Train" passageway. The Canberra Airport is privately owned. Also the Australian Defence Force wanted to undertake new weapons testing there, and the moving kangaroos are understood to have interfered with that. Defence claimed there were 7000 kangaroos there, lifting the numbers to 9000 during the subsequent Administrative Appeals Tribunal Appeal, which was lost. Local wildlife groups disputed the numbers, but Defence claimed to have killed 7000 kangaroos. During this kill, some kangaroos were frightened onto the road and killed by traffic. Read more; click here! Dont Visit Canberra! Then, spurred on by the success of the previous kangaroo kills, the ACT Government decided to kill 550 kangaroos in five Canberra Nature Reserves. In spite of many protests by local groups and residents, they moved into Callum Brae Reserve at night and killed an unknown number of kangaroos there. Again some kangaroos were frightened onto the road and were killed by cars. In all cases above the kangaroos had both inpouch and expouch joeys, which were presumably killed under the National Code of Practice, which recommends decapitation of hairless joeys, and bludgeoning or shooting the larger expouch joeys. Read more; click here! Dont Visit Canberra! Then on the 18th of June 2010 in the late Friday afternoon, the ACT Government in Canberra announced that areas within the Canberra Nature Park will be closed from 6 pm Saturday 19 June 2010 to 6 pm Saturday 31 July 2010 to allow for the controlled culling of over-abundant Eastern Grey Kangaroos. The sites to be closed are Callum Brae Nature Reserve, Crace Nature Reserve, Goorooyarroo Nature Reserve, Jerrabomberra West Nature Reserve, Kama Nature Reserve, Mount Painter Nature Reserve, Mulligan’s Flat Nature Reserve and unleased territory land adjacent to Kama Nature Reserve. The Federal Greens have said it's not their problem, and the ACT Greens support the killing kangaroos of around Canberra. So does the ACT RSPCA. Although 2000 kangaroos will be killed, many of those female kangaroos are carrying baby kangaroos (joeys) in their pouch. These baby kangaroos are killed by bashing their heads in with a steel pipe or by decapitation. Some have a baby kangaroo at foot, and still another in the pouch. Altogether, counting the loss of the baby kangaroos, over 3000 kangaroos could be killed. Read more Click here! Dont visit Canberra! Then in early June 2011, the ACT Government announced that they would kill twice! the number of kangaroos they killed in 2010, in the Parks and Reserves around Canberra!
Dont visit Canberra!
In every case above the ACT government refused to talk to the local groups about nonlethal management options, or indeed if any management options were needed. Early in 2009 they developed a "kangaroo management plan" in isolation, refusing to talk to any local wildlife groups about the Plan. The only input was from academics who were already being funded by the ACT Government. After the "Plan" was completed it was put out for public comment. It was an awful document, and few people within the community with kangaroo knowledge responded, knowing their input would be ignored. Dont Visit Canberra! On 18th of October 2008, the ACT had an election, and the ACT Labor government had a much reduced vote, but managed to gain government again with the support of 4 Green Party members who seemed to come from nowhere. The ACT Greens support the ACT government on the kangaroo kills, in spite of local groups informing them of the problems, and the nonlethal options. So, the kangaroos are not starving as claimed by the Government, they pose no threat to other small species as claimed by the Government, the kangaroos are only being killed because they impede development. Dont Visit Canberra! So we are asking you, as an impending visitor to Australia, why do you want to vist Canberra when there are plenty of other places in Australia where you can see wild kangaroos? Places where locals are proud of their kangaroos and look after them, rather than killing them? Below we have a link to another webpage that will tell you about these places, so you can see kangaroos in the wild without supporting the greedy and bloodthirsty Canberra government (and their lackeys) who in the last few years have brutally killed about 10,000 kangaroos to progress development! The best places in Australia to see wild kangaroos...... NEW! To keep in touch with wildlife issues, go to our website
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