(upbeat music)
- Wild dogs impact on all of the age groups of sheep.
So unlike foxes or pigs which might prey or kill lambs,
wild dogs like to kill all of the ages.
So lambs, weaners, ewes, wethers, and rams.
So for a sheep producer, stopping that level of attack
across his whole flock, he soon finds out that his income
stream is basically not making any dollars,
he's stressed to the max because he physically
can't protect his sheep.
They will actually force sheep producers to move away
from sheep altogether and move into either cattle
or leave the district so it becomes quite a stressful
and emotional decision to have to make
but for some of these people who have lived on the land
and had sheep for three or four generations in family.
(upbeat music)
- I think the cluster fencing at the present time
is the only answer we've got to try and support
and save our wool industry.
(hammering)
Back in the 50's they built dog netting fences.
(hammering)
They were built out of materials that didn't last that long,
the kangaroos tore the bottoms off 'em
and they weren't really an answer to the problem.
It's about inch and a half chicken wire at the bottom.
It was buried in the ground.
The soils here have rusted it off
and the roos have punched holes underneath it.
I don't know how it kept anything out.
In the last probably 10 years the wild dog population
is growing on the back of a massive macropod population.
When we're developing country,
we're providing water, we're providing feed
for our macropods as well as our dogs.
Scalpings are now up around 3000 dogs a year.
It's almost uncontrollable.
- We had massive losses of wethers on Knockninny.
We lost some 800 up there and of course you immediately
think they've been stolen or they're in
the next door neighbours and you get ultra lights in
and you're looking for them and looking for them.
And you start to think well how could they possibly
have killed that many?
I remember Joss and I talking about it here one night
and we said look ewes, especially young ewes,
are $120 to $150 a head,
we cannot let the dogs continue this carnage.
By 2011 we'd worked out that we'd lost 10000 sheep.
This was an operation where we just bred 4000 odd lambs
a year and we had pretty tight control
on what our numbers were.
And we were doing everything we could to control dogs.
So we were baiting and trapping and shooting
and giving people incentives to do their bit.
It was a tough decision but it was just one
we had to make to sell all the sheep in 2011.
(upbeat music)
- So in order to manage the impacts of wild dogs,
through the national wild dog action plan,
we've developed this approach called a nil tenure approach.
Which basically removes who owns
the land and the boundaries.
Dogs don't obey boundaries,
pest animals don't obey boundaries.
And got them to start looking at the landscape
and whether the dogs were moving,
where they were causing impact and where they need
to deliver their control.
So what we've done is we've worked with those communities
and communities and their local governments
to form groups where everyone was delivering
their control probes collectively.
- Well up until now most dog control
was in individual level, land holders themselves.
We needed a more coordinated effort.
Now the council's come on board and we have RLOs
who distribute our baits.
But the whole process, it now is coordinated,
which it wasn't done probably 20 years ago.
And that's been an exceptional advance
as far as we're concerned.
- Longreach formed the wild dog committee
because there had been sporadic wild dog control,
the odd committee here and there,
but nothing really concrete like some of our
neighbouring shires.
So I just got together with a few concerned land holders
and put a proposal to Longreach regional council
and they came back to us and we've actually set up
an advisory committee under the council
and we just took it from there.
- We formed ourselves into a committee to try and control
the dogs but what happened was our lack of participation
has forced us into cluster fencing
because participation rates are down around 30%
which is, it just doesn't make it viable.
- For a lot of these producers fencing
really is the last resort to remain in sheep and wool.
The impacts of dogs are so debilitating both economically
and emotionally that a lot of people have already left
the industry and as John Chandler describes,
his family made that choice given that the impacts
and the losses that it was no longer economically viable.
Nor could he tolerate any more of the welfare implications
of wild dog attacks on his livestock.
We've got research that demonstrates that dogs can move
up to 600 kilometres in four or five weeks.
The only way these guys see to get the security
to protect those livestock is to start putting up
a physical barrier.
And that's where the cluster fencing comes in.
They can then manage their land and control wild dogs
within that and continue to support wild dog management
through those wild dog committees to the rest of the people
in the shire that can't afford
to go into those arrangements.
- The fencing seems to now, to evolve us into the next stage
of control which is to eradicate the dogs out of the area
and in small areas so that they can be controlled.
Gives us a chance to manage our grazing pressures,
gives us biosecurity controls,
it gives us a lot of advantages that we never had before,
lets us look after the land a lot better.
(upbeat music)
The best way these fences work is to be as tight
as you possibly can which this one is.
And we have to stop the animals from putting their heads
through so they don't separate.
Also at the bottom we have this footer that is pretty tight
that stops the animals from burrowing underneath.
'Cause as you dig out it just keeps rearing itself
into the ground.
- What we have seen is this consequence of this
cooperative approach to the wild dog control programme
is that people are more willing to work together.
So by entering into a cluster fence means that each person
only has to fence a certain proportion of their boundary.
Which then links to their neighbouring property.
And so you end up with a number of properties,
between three, and eight, or 10 properties.
What they end up with is an enclosed area
where they can actually have proper control over
what happens inside that fence.
The funding programme only provides for half of the material
per kilometre for each of those fences.
Which works out to around $2750.
However the cost to put up the fencing materials
and maintenance and the preparation
runs to around $7000 a kilometre.
And that additional cost has to be absorbed and paid for
by the producers that are in that cluster.
So that decision and going into that cluster agreement
is quite a costly one.
- With the role out of dog fencing in the district,
I think it's gonna be really good,
not only for those people inside, for wild dog control.
They can have a better handle on the inside.
But also on the outside I think it provides an opportunity
for people to bait up against those fences.
- The cluster fencing will actually increase
the sheep numbers in the area which means the contractor
will have a continuation of work.
He will be able to employ more people.
We like to keep people in our town
so that they can spend money in our towns
and our towns evolve into a better community.
- We've already seen shearers
are coming back to the district.
And it really is an exciting time.
And I certainly hope that it's gonna result
in more people coming to town, bringing kids to town.
And then we've got more kids in schools,
more money going to all sorts of business.
Yeah so it's an exciting time I think that's for sure.
- I'd go so far as to say this is one of the most exciting
infrastructure builds since people started
the gapsy scheme.
There's no doubt that people are extolling the virtues
of their dog exclusion fencing.
- I'm really looking forward to seeing this community
striving again and seeing those producers
rewarded for their effort and handing over their property
to the next generation in a sound and sustainable manner,
so that they can maintain that thriving community
approach to Western Queensland that we all know and love.
(upbeat music)
(bird calls)