Green wedge woe: the farming area excluded from roo management

Even with claims kangaroos are in “plague proportions”, one Victorian region will no longer be part of the state’s management plan come 2025.

A decision to exclude the Mornington Peninsula from the kangaroo management plan has been met with disappointment from producers and industry alike.

It’s a move which will compound the destruction and the toll on agriculture in the peri-urban region, according to one producer and industry representative.

The Victorian Kangaroo Harvest Management Plan 2024-2028 will exclude Mornington Peninsula from the new harvest zones from January 2025.

The decision, according to the plan, was based on consideration of a number of factors “including areas with minimal or no kangaroo populations, Melbourne urban growth boundary, ecological units … and at the time of publishing, existing local government area borders”.

Red Hill cattle producer and Victorian Farmers Federation member David Gibb said kangaroos in the peninsula region were in “plague proportions”, causing damage to fences, trampling horticulture crops, affecting pastures, and more.

Beef producer David Gibb on his Red Hill farm on the Mornington Peninsula. Mr Gibb has concerns about the exclusion of the peninsula from the updated kangaroo harvest management plan. Picture: VFF

“It has a major impact on the horticulture industry with the trampling of crops, which is good-quality that can’t be used and it’s just mulched in,” Mr Gibb said.

“It covers all commodities. It’s a multi-commodity problem, which I don’t think the township people understand.”

A statement written by the VFF Peninsula branch noted several mobs of kangaroos were centred around The Briars, Arthurs Seat State Park and Greens Bush, with significant mobs in Tuerong, Balnarring, Red Hill and Merricks North.

The branch argued uncontrolled kangaroo populations presented biosecurity risks to farms, along with damage to property, overgrazing of paddocks, physical damage to horticulture crops, and damage to shelter belts.

“It’s increasing the difficulty farmers face in dealing with this pest animal that’s in plague proportions,” Mr Gibb said.

Originally published as Green wedge woe: the farming area excluded from roo management