Loading
“We would like the state government to reconsider their decision to include Yarra Ranges in this program,” they said. “We have an engaged community on this issue, many of whom would also like to see us excluded from the program.
“We also acknowledge that other measures need to be taken to reduce the wildlife road toll in the Yarra Ranges, which kangaroos are unfortunately a large part of.”
A parliamentary inquiry into animal road strikes across the state is due to be released in November.
The Mornington Peninsula was successfully added to the exclusion zone in 2021 following community backlash. Yarra Ranges is the only metropolitan council that is included in the harvest zone.
The harvesting program was adopted in 2019 after a five-year trial, and is generally supported by farming communities.
Victorian Farmers Federation president Brett Hosking said the program was an effective way to manage the kangaroo population and to protect farmland, while also producing a valuable protein source.
Victorian Farmers Federation president Brett Hosking on his property in Quambatook.Credit: Erin Jonasson.
Farmers who control kangaroo populations on their own property are unable to move carcasses, meaning they decay and cannot be repurposed.
“It’s a process that none of us like to think about or see. So the fact that it does happen with professionals … means that we all get to enjoy that benefit of pretending that it doesn’t happen,” Hosking said.
Loading
The program has faced criticism since its introduction. Dr Dror Ben-Ami, an ecologist who specialises in wildlife biology and wrote a recent report about national kangaroo surveys, said he was concerned about the reliance on approximation to count population numbers.
Determining the number of kangaroos in Victoria is done by helicopter, counting the population within a small portion of land and using a mathematical formula to approximate the total. Harvesting quotas are then calculated using these population statistics.
Ben-Ami said less than 1 per cent of kangaroo habitats were being included in surveys, and certain areas were not being recounted as frequently as they should.
“It’s not an accurate count. There are a lot of variables that affect how accurate that estimate is … [and] these estimates actually create the groundwork for how many kangaroos are then killed,” he said.
Loading
A Victorian government spokesperson said the program was necessary to protect the state’s environment and farmland, and $3 million had been invested in the program for the next two years.
“Commercial quotas are set at no more than 10 per cent of the population each year, to ensure harvesting does not compromise the sustainability of kangaroo populations,” they said.
The spokesperson declined to comment on exactly why the Yarra Ranges council’s request to enter the exclusion zone was denied.
But there is a need for regulation change, according to Preuss. He’d like to start with commercial kangaroo culling being immediately banned in his municipality.
“It might be possible in three years’ time, but in three years’ time, we might not have any kangaroos left in this area,” he said.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.