{"id":604871,"date":"2026-04-13T21:10:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T21:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/604871\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T21:10:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T21:10:17","slug":"feral-cat-numbers-spark-bounty-push-across-outback-queensland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/604871\/","title":{"rendered":"Feral cat numbers spark bounty push across outback Queensland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Driving through the Queensland outback, something flashes across the headlights, but it’s too quick to be a wallaby.<\/p>\n

It’s one of nearly a million feral cats thought to be roaming the state.<\/p>\n

Two years on from a rat plague, feral cat populations have boomed across the north-west, leading more councils to adopt feral cat bounties.<\/p>\n

But as council funds run thin, shires are calling on state and federal governments to help \u2014 an idea experts say will have little impact.<\/p>\n

In the Richmond shire, about 400 kilometres east of Mount Isa, 6,000 cats were shot in just four months after a $10 bounty was introduced last August.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

An endangered Julia Creek dunnart was found in the mouth of a feral cat in the Richmond Shire Council.\u00a0 (Supplied: Mathew Fontaine)<\/p>\n

Mayor John Wharton said the pests were at historic levels.<\/p>\n

“In previous years, we might have done a couple of thousand a year, but to do that in four months is unbelievable,” he said.<\/p>\n

Cr Wharton believed the bounty \u2014 which is fully funded by Richmond council \u2014 had been successful.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

John Wharton says cat bounties have driven down feral cat numbers. (ABC Rural: Lucy Cooper)<\/p>\n

“They’re going backwards now. Don’t tell me it doesn’t work,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I’d like to see what the federal and state governments are proposing and see who’s got the most .<\/p>\n

“Small animals and birds are being crucified in the bush \u2026 we’ve got to address the situation in a real, hands-on way.”<\/p>\n

Other councils follow suit<\/p>\n

Cloncurry, Etheridge, Mount Isa and Boulia councils have followed suit, introducing bounty programs ranging from $10 to $25 a tail.<\/p>\n

According to the Threatened Species Recovery Hub, feral cats kill 3.2 million mammals and 1.2 million birds across Australia each year and carry infectious diseases that affect humans and livestock.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The stomach contents of one feral cat shot in north Queensland as part of a coordinated threatened species program. \u00a0 (Supplied: Conservation Partners)<\/p>\n

Macropod harvester Matt Fontaine is a professional kangaroo shooter based in Julia Creek, one of the last shires in the region without a bounty.<\/p>\n

He said he had seen cats preying on endangered species such as the Julia Creek dunnart.<\/p>\n

“I had my manager with me [and] we saw a cat with something in its mouth,” Mr Fontaine said.<\/p>\n

“It was a Julia Creek dunnart [in its mouth]. We were a few minutes too late.”<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

Mr Fontaine said in peak conditions he could spot 800 cats a night but, without a bounty, it was not viable to cull the pest.<\/p>\n

“It’s my job to go out and concentrate on kangaroos,” he said.<\/p>\n

“When I see there’s other animals out there, I have to ignore it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0“It costs a lot of money in fuel to get out there, but then bullets, it works out to $2-$3 a shot.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Professional kangaroo shooter Matt Fontaine found an endangered Julia Creek dunnart in the mouth of a feral cat. (Supplied: Mathew Fontaine)<\/p>\n

‘If we lose them, then they’re gone forever’<\/p>\n

In 2024, the federal government introduced a national plan to stem cat-inflicted extinctions.<\/p>\n

The plan prioritised species such as the night parrot and greater bilby and introduced policies to make pet desexing and micro-chipping more accessible.<\/p>\n

Mount Isa councillor James Coghlan believed the approach had had little effect.<\/p>\n

He said it was an unreasonable burden for councils to control and fund a national issue.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

James Coghlan wants to see state and federal governments share the responsibility of feral animals with regional councils.\u00a0 (ABC)<\/p>\n

“It needs to be federally coordinated and run by the councils and enough finance to do that, because councils are doing it all themselves at the moment.<\/p>\n

“I’ve never seen tourists come to look at feral cats, but I’ve seen plenty who come \u2026 to look at native wildlife.”<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Queensland Primary industries Minister Tony Perrett would not confirm if a state-funded bounty was being seriously looked at, but said “all options are on the table”.<\/p>\n

A federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water spokesperson said bounties were not the solution.<\/p>\n

“The impacts of feral cats are so significant and widespread, we need to be strategic and focus our efforts on reducing their impacts on species and places that are most at risk, not just their numbers, which is the focus of bounties,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Threatened Species Commissioner Fiona Fraser said instead of funding local government programs, the federal government invested heavily in the Saving Native Species and Natural Heritage Trust programs to protect vulnerable species.<\/p>\n

Experts question effectiveness<\/p>\n

A 2016 report from the Natural Resource Commission and 2017 study by The Wildlife Society found bounties had negligible impacts on total feral numbers.<\/p>\n

Charles Darwin University ecologist and Biodiversity Council Australia member John Woinarski said historically, bounties had not worked.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

John Woinarski says feral animal bounties have not worked in the past. (Supplied: Biodiversity Council of Australia)<\/p>\n

“Feral cat numbers are likely to be very high in western and central Queensland at the moment on account of some wetter years, and cats will be taking a large toll on native wildlife,” Professor Woinarski said.<\/p>\n

“Recreational hunting could play a role in reducing cat impacts under the right circumstances.<\/p>\n

“Feral cat shooting is not coordinated, intensive or sustained enough to improve outcomes for wildlife \u2014 and simply paying a bounty won’t change that.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Driving through the Queensland outback, something flashes across the headlights, but it’s too quick to be a wallaby.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,294397,2406,294398,294399,129764,5702,128,9525,338],"class_list":["post-604871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-feral-cat-bounty","tag-feral-cats","tag-feral-cats-queensland","tag-john-wharton","tag-john-woinarski","tag-native-wildlife","tag-science","tag-threatened-species","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}