Morriset Kangaroo Kill Mooted!

Recently, around mid-July 2010, Newcastle Herald ran the story below.......

Morisset kangaroos may have to be culled amid rising fears for public safety, with the animals said to be increasing at an unsustainable rate. Residents have concerns about people getting too close to kangaroos in and around the grounds of Morisset Hospital, where hundreds of the animals dwell. Wildlife experts conceded a cull would have to occur some time to rein in numbers.

With kangaroos going further into nearby residential areas than ever before, authorities have urged the public to stop feeding them. Native Animal Trust Fund carer Margaret Howley said her organisation discussed a cull with state authorities after a four-wheel-drive mowed down and killed eight kangaroos at the hospital in 2008. ‘‘A cull will have to happen in the future,’’ Mrs Howley said. ‘No one is getting hurt and they’re not attacking people, but if that started to happen they would get moving on a cull.’’

They venture between the hospital, the adjacent Lake Macquarie State Recreation Area and nearby houses. Morisset Park resident Steve Mason said kangaroo numbers had increased significantly in 40 years. Mr Mason said residents loved the kangaroos and most did not mind them being in and around their properties. ‘‘They’re superb, they eat grass in my backyard,’’ Mr Mason said. ‘‘But from a conservation point of view, they will have to do something about it at some point.’’

Resident Gayle Hamilton said tourists, including children, were feeding the animals as if they were pets. ‘‘A big grey could seriously injure somebody with one kick,’’ Mrs Hamilton said. A National Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman said it had advised the hospital on how to make the site less appealing to kangaroos. ‘‘Any culled or relocated animals would be very quickly replaced by more animals because of the ideal conditions of the area for kangaroos,’’ she said.

Hunter New England Health director of mental health, Dinesh Arya, said the department wanted Morisset Hospital to be open to the community. ‘We want people to enjoy the great environment, but we don’t want them to put themselves or anyone else at risk,’’ Dr Arya said. ‘Kangaroos are wild animals and people need to maintain a safe and respectful distance from them.’’

The wildlife service said it ‘‘can’t stress enough how important it is for people not to feed the kangaroos’’. Feeding kangaroos anything other than their natural diet caused health problems and was ‘‘potentially dangerous for people as the animals can be aggressive or cause accidental injuries, especially to children’’. *Newcastle Herald

After the report was published, a protest was held at the Morriset Hospital ( a hospital for the criminally insane) near Newcastle. One wildlife carer, Margaret Howley was incorrectly quoted in the newspaper report as supporting a cull, when she did not and does not. But since the newspaper report, locals have spent some time inspecting the site of 3000 acres, and its very large, with significant forest areas.

Local Aborigonal people have an interest in part of the site, and its big enough, and in a superb location, to really be a developers dream, if they could get hold of it.

WPAA had a call from a Morriset hospital doctor a few years ago, expressing concern about Morriset Hospital, and the fate of the kangaroos. She claimed that there was pressure from a developer to have the State and Federal governments close Morriset, which is a hospital for the criminally insane.

Apparently it is a prime development site if it could be transferred to development hands. She was also concerned they might release some of the patients if it was closed. However someone else has suggested some of the patients have already been released, and are now working in Government. She may be right.

It turns out that buses have been taking backpackers to the Hospital on sightseeing trips, and they have been feeding the kangaroos. local campaigns are now under way to discourage this practice. Whatever happens at Morriset, we will all be keeping a close eye on the health and wellbeing of the kangaroos.

Then, on the 5th of August, the local newspaper Lakes Mail ran this story.........

Emma Vrshkovski, 22, is $1000 short when she counts her blessings after a head-on collision with a kangaroo at the busy Station Street and Fishery Point Road junction at Bonnells Bay on Friday.

The Trinity Point resident was uninjured, but $1000 is the cost of the excess insurance she will have to pay to have her car repaired. Now Ms Vrshkovski and her family are calling for an inquiry into escalating kangaroo numbers which they say are roaming the Morisset peninsula's urban streets. "I was driving to work and this big kangaroo just leaped out of nowhere. Other drivers at the scene said I didn't have a hope of avoiding it," Ms Vrshkovski said. "I was extremely lucky not to be seriously injured.

Just two weeks ago I was a passenger in my friend's car going to the gym on the same road and it happened to her too. I am now hearing of it happening to other residents and many of them it seems make insurance claims where they can, but usually don't bother to report it."

Her insurance company will likely cover the cost of Ms Vrshkovski's repair bill, expected to be around $4000, but she says she is up for $1000 excess. "That's a lot of money and who do I blame, the kangaroo? Plus my insurance on my Mazda 3 will now be more expensive. This is a country dirt road but a suburban street." Ms Vrshkovski's mother Susan Foster, also a Trinity Point resident, is now campaigning for a review of kangaroo population control.

"The council told me National Parks and Wildlife are responsible and they in turn told me it is the area rangers who are required to monitor numbers," she said. "I'm really concerned about this because we have kangaroos all over the place and it's just a matter of time before somebody gets killed. It will be too late to do anything then, because that will be one life too many," she said. "My daughter has had three recent near misses with these animals and she's precious to me. It is very worrying. Kangaroo numbers in the hospital grounds are in plague proportions and this is where they are coming from. They aren't afraid of urban streets, any more." *Lakes Mail