On 1 February 2018, the Minister for Agriculture and Food announced the successful recipients of funding from the Rangelands Cell Fencing Program.
Four pastoral groups will share $4.03 million to protect livestock from wild dog attacks. This funding is part of State Government initiatives to grow the pastoral industry and create regional jobs.
The successful applicants are:
- Kalgoorlie Pastoral Alliance Cell ($2 million)
- Southern Gascoyne Rangelands Cell ($986 000)
- Murchison Regional Vermin Cell ($594 000)
- Murchison Hub Cell ($450 000).
Under the program, successful applicants are required to contribute a minimum of 50% of the overall cost of fence construction and will commit to ongoing fence maintenance and wild dog management within the cell.
Pastoral groups will report back to industry and the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development on building and maintaining the fence, stock numbers and wild dog control.
Industry will use these cell fence demonstration sites to assess whether cell fencing is a suitable economic approach to protecting and renewing small livestock enterprises and deliver a sustained benefit to industry and regional communities in Western Australia.
Wild dog predation on livestock is taking a heavy economic and emotional toll on livestock producers in affected pastoral and agricultural areas. Despite best current effort, the impact of wild dogs is an increasing threat to livestock industries in Western Australia.
In addition to significant annual stock losses to wild dogs, their threat is a major deterrent to restocking of livestock enterprises and to associated regional development opportunities such as transport and shearing services.
The Rangelands Cell Fencing Program is co-funded by the State Government through Western Australia’s Royalties for Regions program and the Australian Government, and supports the WA Wild Dog Action Plan.
Contact
Barry Davies
Telephone: +61 (08) 97806266
Email: Barry.Davies@dpird.wa.gov.au