By Oliver Winn
A rise in wild dog attacks on livestock prompted an emergency community meeting on Wednesday 30 April which saw landowners, politicians and councillors unite to find a solution.
67 landowners sacrificed their evenings and attended the first meeting of the newly-formed Yarra Valley Wild Dog Action Group (YVWDAG) held at the Wandin East Hall, demonstrating the widespread impact of the issue.
YVWDAG founder Steve Ross said inaction from the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) meant the locals needed to take matters into their own hands.
“We need a formal group, so we can actually make some decisions to get some local action, so then we’re in control of that local action. At the moment, DEECA is in control of our action, and we’re getting nothing,” Steve Ross said.
After two hours of robust discussion, one main priority was identified for the group – the importance of collectively documenting wild dog incidents.
Yarra Ranges Mayor Jim Child said a collective database of wild dog reports managed by a single body would be the key in getting DEECA to take further action.
“I think the more we increase that database the better.”
“Here’s a group of people that come together and want to manage it on their land, and they want to manage it well. Well, come on, DEECA, come to the party as well. Come and look after your piece of the land. Because it’s your responsibility,” Cr Child said.
Liberal member for Casey Aaron Violi said “If the department doesn’t know something exists in their world, it doesn’t exist.”
The meeting concluded with a strong sense of unity as landowners realised they’d need to work together to overcome the issue.
“Here we are in the Yarra Valley, with lots of 10 acre, 20 acre blocks. We, more than ever, need neighbours. We can’t do it on our own,” Mr Ross said.
There had been a growing sentiment of fear, frustration and resentment among the landowners who all shared their own horror stories about gory livestock discoveries, wild dog encounters and long nights keeping watch over cattle.
A landowner from Yellingbo named Kate shared her emotional story about how wild dog attacks decimated her livestock and made a serious impact on a major source of income.
“We got up to about 200 sheep, so we know we were doing well, but then the attacks kept coming… One night, [we lost] 24 sheep,” she said as she choked back tears.
The meeting comes off the back of DEECA’s Vertebrate Species Management Program community meeting on 9 April in Yellingbo that left many locals indignant at the lack of communication from the government about the meeting.’
State member for Eildon Cindy McLeish said she was told about the meeting at the last minute.
“I was notified about the meeting a week out and spread word as best I could.”
Another main concern highlighted was the incredibly large area the Senior Wild Dog Controller, Dwayne Needham, was responsible for covering.
Mr Needham’s job is to manage wild dog incidents in the 531,000 hectare large Gembrook, Noojee and Erica zone, which often resulted in Mr Needham only being able to effectively respond to a small number of incident reports in the area.
“DEECA officers are working hard at ground level to respond to, monitor and record wild dog sightings and attacks. It is a hard job, and they don’t have enough resources,” Ms McLeish said.
Mr Needham also can only respond to wild dog incident reports on weekdays, which greatly reduces his capacity to manage wild dog incidents.
“He’s covering 531,000 hectares. He ain’t coming,” Mr Ross said.
Wild dogs include feral dogs, dingoes and their hybrids and are considered a serious pest animal in Australia that have a detrimental effect on the agricultural sector, potential to cause adverse social impacts and are perceived to cause environmental damage.
But, a 2023 study by the University of New South Wales found there is limited evidence of interbreeding between wild dogs and dingoes, meaning most animals previously thought to be wild dogs, are in fact likely to be dingoes.
Victorian National Parks Association (VNPA) park protection and nature campaigner Jordan Crook said the study’s findings made the management of wild dog attacks a lot more complicated.
“There needs to be an unbiased assessment to understand if these are domestic feral dogs or if it’s dingoes,” Mr Crook said.
The study however does state its author, Kylie M. Cairns was a scientific advisor at the Australian Dingo Foundation and that she received funding from the group too.
In an article in The Conversation, Ms Cairns argued that the term wild dog was outdated, and there should be more effort to distinguish between the two.
Alongside the dingo’s significant cultural importance to Victoria’s First Peoples, dingoes are protected threatened wildlife under the Wildlife Act 1975 and listed as ‘Vulnerable’ on the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 Threatened List.
Research by DEECA’s Arthur Rylah Institute (ARI) of dingo populations in Victoria revealed critically low dingo populations in north west Victoria (between 40 and 230) while populations in east Victoria remained stable (2640 to 8800).
In response to the findings, the State Government continued the protection of dingoes in the north west but extended the unprotection order (permitting the lethal management of dingoes) in the east to 2028.
But Mr Crook wants to see non-lethal management of dingoes prioritised and called upon the State Government to provide more funding to landowners so they could better equip themselves to keep livestock and dingoes separate.
“It’s going to require investment in non-lethal management, so stock protected by electric fences, improved fences, but also guardian animals like donkeys and maremma dogs.”
“There’s a lot that can be done that doesn’t mean we have to go around killing native wildlife,” Mr Crook said.
This sentiment wasn’t shared by those in attendance at the wild dog meeting however – many were critical of it being out of touch.
Stock and Land journalist Barry Murphy said in order to combat the “view among city people” that the “wild dog is the dingo that shall be protected”, landowners needed to document the attacks.
“So for us it’s all about demonstrating just how bad it is.”
Though both sides of the coin hold differing perspectives on dingoes, they both want the same outcome – to protect farmers and their livestock.
“We really need a science and ecology-based responses to understand what the impact is,” Mr Crook said.
“So, we need to understand what impact are dingoes having, what impact are feral domestic dogs having, and then work from there.”
“It needs folks to work together but work in the context that some of these animals are likely native dingoes.”
