How Dingoes are Saving the Outback

David Pollock from Wooleen Station in WA discusses the benefits of retaining Dingoes in the landscape. Covering over a quarter of a million acres of picturesque Outback, Wooleen Station is a cattle station that is playing a leading role in preserving and sustaining the unique ecology of the region.

As apex predators, Dingoes are important in maintaining the environmental health of Australian landscapes. Increasing evidence from scientific research and from on-ground observations by land managers show that they can be valuable partners in agriculture.

They reduce over-grazing by controlling kangaroos and controlling, in some cases locally eradicating, feral herbivore pests (goats, pigs and rabbits) and carnivores (foxes and cats). By maintaining Dingo populations on their properties, graziers will additionally benefit by a reduction in the costs, time and frustration spent in the often unsuccessful effort to control them.

It is acknowledged and recognised that for sheep and goat producers, Dingoes in a district can have severe impacts unless there are active measures – not necessarily lethal – to protect these smaller stock.

To learn more about Landholders for Dingoes and other graziers on beef cattle enterprises who don't indiscriminately persecute Dingoes, visit our website: www.landholdersfordingoes.org