About the disgraceful Maria Island kangaroo shootfest!
Urgent! Maria Island kangaroo and wallaby kill to start again! Details below! The Island has a long and sad history of exploitation of both human, animal and mineral resources. In 1825 Maria became a penal settlement. Because of the number of escapes, the settlement was later transfered to Port Arthur. Apparently even in those days the management was poor. Some subsistance farming took place around the perimeter of the Island, although the interior is high and rugged. Most of the origonal wildlife appears to have disappeared during this period.
Above; Maria Island in the morning sunlight. Later a cement works was established, but soon closed. The remnants of the convict buildings and the cement works can still be seen. Several good walking tracks are on the Island, and no vehicles are allowed although pushbikes are. Maria Island was declared a Fauna Sanctuary in 1968, and then progressed to National Park status, and a Marine Park around some of the Island was added in 1991. From 1965 a number of Tasmanian native animals were introduced by the then Government. The idea was to create a fauna reserve that would attract tourism. Obviously even back in 1965 there were also concerns about wether some of these unique Tasmanian native animals would become extinct due to mainland development.
Above; A Bennets Wallaby with her joey. Around 300 were killed in July 2007 along with another 200 or so pademelons. However the introduction of these species to Maria Island has created some unique management problems, few of which seem to be adequately addressed. The introduced animals included koalas, possums, emus, Forester kangaroos, Bennets wallabies, pademelons, the Tasmanian native fowl, Tasmanian bettongs, bandicoots (both brown and barred), echidnas and others. Later the emus were eradicated along with the introduced deer and cats.
Above; A beautiful Flame Robin perches on convict building remains on Maria Island. In 1975, after a serious drought, public concern about starving kangaroos encouraged the government to shoot about 75% of the kangaroos, wallabies, and pademelons. Each year since then, the Island is closed to visitors in winter and another shootfest takes place. The shooting is undertaken by staff from National Parks and the Department of Primary Industries and Water (DPIW). DPWI used to be the Dept of Environment too, but fortunately it got taken away from them. Sometimes politicians are invited along for the shoot, last year one of them was the Tasmanian Premier.
Above; Maria Island kangroos are fit and healthy! In July 2007, around 620 animals were killed. This tally included around 100 Forester kangaroos, and the rest were Bennets wallabies and pademelons. In November 2008 I visited the Island with Nikki Sutterby from the Australian Kangaroo Protection Society. Our visit was prompted by expressions of concern from many of our Tasmanian and Mainland members, who were very concerned about the whole process.
Above; A Maria Island kangaroo with her joey. Around 100 kangaroos were shot in 2007. We also met with Government representatives. It appears there is very little data to justify a shoot, and in my opinion it has just become a "habit". We discussed alternative non-lethal options, and National Parks were interested in pursuing a better management process, although DPIW were less enthusiastic. Sadly when on the Island we saw very few Bennets wallabies, and no pademelons, although we intend to go back to have a better look early next year. We spoke to some of the campers and they said there were some wallabies around in the late evening. The lowlying ex-farmland is covered in thistles, about nine different species I was told. The balance of this area where the macropods graze consists of introduced grasses. We also spent some time with the local wildlife and animal welfare groups who were also very incensed about the shootfest.
We understand around 100 kangaroos were killed in July 2007. Some wildlife carers we spoke to had requested to be able to save the joeys, but were refused. The management of macropods on Maria Island clearly has become an annual shootfest for government sporting shooters, and the Government needs to come up with some decent data showing that the shooting is justified, and they need to produce some peer-reviewed credible data on what damage if any the macropods are having on native plant species. More updates on this matter later.
Above; A Maria Island Bennets Wallaby waits for the sun to warm him up. We believe around 300 wallabies were shot in July 2007. You can help stop this disgraceful annual shootout by contacting the Tasmanian Ministers below. You can ask them to investigate and implement non-lethal macropod management on Maria Island. You can also suggest that this kill when exposed will have a very negative effect on Tasmanian tourism, and the Tasmanian Government can look good by doing better. STOP PRESS! We found out today (12/6/08) that the Tasmanian Government is to hold another shootfest on Maria Island starting 30th June. In a letter recieved last week, they have told us that our nonlethal kangaroo management suggestions are unworkable, and "culling" will continue. No doubt their decision has been helped by the perception that the ACT government has got away with the Belconnen kill. Please email or phone the politicians below urgently! Local groups will be protesting, and will need our support. They will be distributing flyers to the Tourism Industry, and to tourists themselves.
Electorate: Lyons Phone: (03) 6233 6454 Fax: (03)6233 2272 david.llewellyn@parliament.tas.gov.au Minister for Primary Industries and Water. Minister for Police and Emergency Management. Minister for Energy. GOVERNMENT CONTACTS Premier david.bartlett@parliament.tas.gov.au 03 62332530 Minister Env Heritage and the Arts david.llewellyn@parliament.tas.gov.au 03 62336454 Secretary Env Heritage and Arts Assistant Lauren Parr lauren.parr@depha.tas.gov.au 03 62335908
You can also download and print out a flier here to pin up in your workplace or local shop window. RIGHT click to download. Right click to download the Maria Island Flier!
THANKS EVERYONE
I am very sad to report that despite high winds, gusts and gale forces on Maria Island and media statements by the Department that they would not kill in these conditions, they have gone ahead anyway and killed 460 Forrester Kangaroos, Bennetts wallabies and pademelons in just four nights with wind and gusts from 25-80 km hr. This is in breach of the National Code of Practice (Malpractice?) and no doubt would have inflicted horrific cruelty on these animals just like they did in 2006. Their ability to shoot straight in these conditions would have been near impossible and would have caused many to escape and die slowly from their wounds. Again just like in 2006 many females would have died from their wounds after escaping and had live joeys in their pouches and joeys at foot. They clearly have no regard for these animals and would not even spend the money for professional shooters using only their own rangers who would have little shooting practice. I am so sorry everyone that we couldnt stop this but we will continue to expose their barbaric treatment of our native animals over the next few days. We are getting a run on WIN TV tonite about their clear breaches.
Thank you all so much to all of you who have donated, and for those who have offered to give more, please hold onto this money for now until our next battle. Thank you all so much for all the wonderful letters you wrote. It gave our beautiful wildlife the honour it deserves and has put their welfare well into the minds of Tasmanians, just like you did for Canberran's.
Congratulations to Patti, Chris, Anne Marie and Claire who got wonderful letters printed in the paper along with a most gorgeous photo of a pademelon joey. Im so sorry to have to tell you this bad news, but sadly things will get worse before they get better, but they WILL get better and our wildlife will soon get the honour and respect they so deserve.
Im so sorry what has happened down here. But it is important to keep something in mind. While many of us have been fighting for kangaroos for many years, never before has there been this powerful force that is this amazing forum, and the concerted and public fight we have waged against the kangaroo killers. These kills have occurred regularly in the past and no one has ever known or acted on it because we all were acting alone.
But now, things have changed and we are a powerful force and we are determined to fight every bloody one and publicise it to the world. This process is creating a swell of support and publicity for the kangaroos who once died without anyone knowing.
This fight is just beginning and there is still going to be a lot of losses before we start to have wins, but at least we can know that now, few kangaroos are dying alone, we are telling the world every single time, and eventually the country will realise how important and beautiful they are, because we are now telling them.
I have every confidence that things will start to change very soon, so dont despair, things will be like this for a while, but this amazing force that we have become will save our roos from extinction and the unrelenting suffering and persecution they are now facing. Every little thing we are doing is having an effect on the attitudes to kangaroos and this country is slowly becoming aware of their plight.
As a symbol of how effective we have been in just this fight for Maria Island roos and wallabies, today in the Mercury newspaper, the slaughter of 460 kangas and wallabiews and pademelons received the hot topic centrepiece in the editorial. Chris and Lin from AACT wrote the most articulate and intelligent letters about this cruel killing and have now educated those that would never have thought twice about these animals being massacred every year.
Someone else even wrote in expressing their concern about the plight of the other 3 million being killed for pet food in Australia. So while we couldnt save these guys, we will save millions more in the future. I know this.
Maybe Patti or Chris could scan this wonderful centrepiece page for the forum to lighten their day. Thank you Chris and Lin for writing these wonderful letters as well as Anne Marie, CLaire and Patti also for their letters earlier in the week. YOu are all truly compassionate, intelligent and wonderful people that I feel honoured to know. And also Patti, Chris, Lin, Angus, Jenn, and Fiona and Szumai who came to Tassie to fight this battle.
We are only just beginning our fight, and look at what we have achieved so far. Be very proud of yourselves and thank you to the Canberra roos for allowing us to come together to fight for all your amazing species that grace this country. We will never forget you and what happend to you and everything we do is in your honour. * Nikki Sutterby, Australian Society for Kangaroos
Above; Endangered Cape Barren Geese on Maria Island.
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