2024 Victorian kangaroo cull quota cut by 10,100
The Victorian government has released kangaroo quota details for 2024. But a slump in demand means the target is unlikely to be met.
The Victorian Government has signed off on 156,650 kangaroos being culled for processing in 2024, down 10,100 on this year’s target of 166,750.
Professional roo shooter Glenn Cole said he was relieved the quota had been issued, so harvesting could commence in the new year, but warned the industry faced major problems as demand slumped.
“We won’t fulfil it (the quota) anyway, because we don’t have the buyers,” Mr Cole said. “The US market has collapsed, with all the human consumption stuff coming back onto the pet market, which has also collapsed.”
Australian Wild Game Industry Council chief executive Dennis King said an oversupply of red meat globally and a shortage of cold storage space in Australia had led to the glut.
“We’re expecting it will recover,” Mr King said, though not for a while.
The quota for the Mallee has been cut to zero, but Mr Cole said Parks Victoria was already conducting culls and the quota in past years had been cut to about 1000 or less.
Each year’s quota is based on an aerial survey conducted by the Arthur Rylah Institute each spring, which recommends that no more than 10 per cent of Victoria’s kangaroo population be culled each year, under the state’s Kangaroo Harvesting Program and via Authority to Control Wildlife permits.
In 2022 the ARI survey estimated the Victorian kangaroo population at 2.36 million, setting the 2023 quota at 236,350, of which it predicted 69,600 would be culled by landholders holding ACTW permits, leaving 166,750 to be culled under the harvesting program.
The government has also released its new Victorian Kangaroo Harvest Management Plan 2024-2028, which expands the current no-go zone around Melbourne to include the Mornington Peninsula and most peri-urban local government areas.
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