By Callum Ludwig
Woori Yallock resident and former President of the Australian Wildlife Protection Council Peter Preuss has reignited his calls for kangaroo protection in the Yarra Ranges, hoping for a new set of councillors to take a stance.
With Yarra Ranges Council in caretaker mode ahead of the upcoming Council elections, Mr Preuss is organising a screening of the documentary ‘Kangaroo – A Love-Hate Story’ at Yarra Valley ECOSS on Thursday 24 October 24, the last day of the local elections, to ensure the issue is front of mind. The date also marks World Kangaroo Day.
Mr Preuss said that kangaroos may be lost from the landscape if we don’t stop commercial killing.
“The Yarra Ranges is within the state government’s ‘Central Shooting Zone’, this is one of seven zones with a total annual commercial kill quota of 166,750 kangaroos,” he said.
“Divide 166,750 by 360 days, then divide that by 8-night hours and again by 60 minutes and you’ll find that an adult kangaroo can be killed for profit every minute of every night of the year.”
“And then there are the joeys ‘at-foot’ left to die after their mothers are killed, and the ‘in-pouch’
joeys that, according to the ‘National Code of Practice for the killing of Kangaroos and Wallaby’ are bashed over the head.”
Mr Preuss called on Yarra Ranges Council at a council meeting in July 2023 to reject the commercial exploitation of kangaroos in the municipality and to develop a kangaroo management plan that will reflect that position, taking inspiration from the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council and Mount Alexander Shire Council’s which already had and now the councils in Casey, Cardinia and Nillumbik which have since followed suit.
Mr Preuss said he was very involved in the issue of kangaroo killing back in the 1980s but not so much until recently as he didn’t even know of the re-introduction of commercial killing, despite the change having been made in 2014 to reduce waste from the bodies of kangaroos already being killed.
“I did not know about all this until 2023 and by that time the Red Kangaroo had already become commercially extinct in Victoria, even Grey Kangaroos have been driven to the point of commercial extinction on private land in the Mallee where a quota of zero had to be imposed,” he said.
“Next year, the Shire of Yarra Ranges will become part of the massive Gippsland Shooting Zone which extends from Lilydale to Mallacoota, a kangaroo processing plant operates out of Coldstream and shooters are advertising for places to kill and if a local resident has kangaroos on their property and enjoys their existence, they will not be able to stop them from being killed if a neighbour calls in the shooters,”
“Our kangaroos face a bleak future unless Council stands up.”
Mr Preuss has partnered with the Victorian Kangaroo Alliance (VKA), which formed in the Yarra Ranges, to host the screening.
President and founder of the VKA Alyssa Wormald said Peter has an incredible track record as a dedicated wildlife advocate and conservationist, and they are delighted to support his efforts. “The screening of ‘Kangaroo’ is very important as most locals would be unaware that Australia perpetrates the world’s largest land-based wildlife trade, and shocked that commercial shooters are killing wild kangaroos right here in the Yarra Ranges,” she said.
“The groundbreaking documentary will be enlightening for anyone who has unquestioningly accepted the justifications presented by the government and kangaroo industry, residents need to understand that they could have kangaroo shooters turn up next door to their property in the middle of the night with absolutely no warning, and there is nothing they can do to stop the killing.”
‘Kangaroo: A Love-Hate Story’, co-written and directed by Mick McIntyre and Kate McIntyre Clere, was released in 2017 and features interviews with environmental scientist Tim Flannery and Australia Zoo’s Terri Irwin among others from the worlds of politics, science and other experts.
Ms Wormald said there is a global movement to expose the ‘unethical, unsustainable and unhygienic’ kangaroo industry.
“We encourage locals to come and see what all the fuss is about, the event will arm them with critical knowledge, and we hope they will be inspired to advocate for peaceful coexistence with this truly incredible and deeply misunderstood native animal,” she said.
“We encourage anyone who has been impacted by the kangaroo trade to reach out to us at info@vickangas.org so we can continue to document their experiences and fight for change.”
