Tragic Outcome for 'Roos in Canberra

The deaths of 400 kangaroos at the Defence Department Belconnen Naval Transmission Station in Canberra has been a tragedy in the making for the past 10 or more years. The enclosed population of Eastern Grey kangaroos at the base have been permitted to increase in number and were said to be threatening several plant species. Similar mismanagement had occurred years earlier at the Puckupunyal Army Base in Victoria.

Animal advocates had been assured as recently as April that a trial translocation of some of the kangaroos would be undertaken, and that a fertility control trial would occur at the base. Then, without warning, and despite gallant efforts by many animal advocates, including from our member societies, and the local indigenous people who gathered at the base, the killing proceeded. Those present who witnessed the methods used—herding distressed kangaroos to be darted with a tranquiliser before a lethal injection—have condemned the actions of the authorities, and are themselves still traumatised by the suffering they witnessed.

Appeals by Animals Australia directly to the Minister for Defence Joel Fitzgibbon and his parliamentary secretary Mike Kelly to intervene to stop the killing, fell on deaf ears—as did the international and Australia-wide media coverage of the killing of Australia’s national icon. Even an offer by Animal Liberation NSW to pay the cost of the relocation of the kangaroos to available properties was ignored.

Animals Australia will seek information about the progress and outcomes of the fertility control trial that has now commenced on remaining kangaroos at the Belconnen site. We will continue to apply pressure to the Defence Department and the Rudd Government to obtain a guarantee that no further lethal control methods are used in their management of wildlife on the huge tracts of Defence Department-managed land. It is clear that the methods used in Canberra caused horrific injuries to some of the kangaroos, and stress to all involved, and cannot be repeated.