AWPC Call for Protection of Common Wombats in ALL Parishes in Victoria

09/08/2019 Eve Kelly

Update
Due to public outrage and media reports in 2019 that the AWPC’s Eve Kelly contributed to, as well as the work of Greens Senator Hanson-Young and Animal Justice Party MP Andy Meddick, the Victorian government amended the Wildlife Act 1975 in February 2020 to protect wombats in all parishes. Still, the AWPC knows that for wombat welfare to be protected properly, breaches of the Act need to be investigated and enforced. Still, we are very happy with this positive step forward.
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The news that wombats are in the firing line for recreational hunters is no surprise to the Australian Wildlife Protection Council (AWPC). We place the blame for these cruel and irresponsible activities squarely on the Victorian State Government.

The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) is responsible for enforcing the Wildlife Act 1975, including breaches to the disturbance, trapping or killing of ‘protected’ native fauna. However, DELWP Wildlife Officers – some of whom hail from the Game Management Authority – stated publicly that their job isn’t to ‘protect’ native wildlife but to ‘regulate’ them. The state government describes native wildlife as ‘assets’ that they need to protect for economic interests. They assist a $174 million per year (2014) kangaroo meat and leather industry. It is in the state government’s best interests, economically and politically, to keep kangaroos maligned as ‘pests’. Voting farmers also have political sway and keeping wombats in a ‘pest’ status buys the government votes. Similarly, the Game Management Authority (GMA) pressures the government to provide ‘assets’ to hunt, e.g. ducks.

How YOU can Help Wombats in Victoria

The AWPC spoke to The New Daily and Border Mail about this dreadful situation, and you can have a voice too.

1. Join or donate to the AWPC so we can continue to be a voice for wildlife. https://www.webpst.com.au/awpc-old/join/
2. Write a letter or email to the editor of your local newspaper or The Age or Herald Sun.
3. Contact your local MPs and tell them you want more protection for native Australian wildlife including wombats.
4. Email Premier Daniel Andrews (daniel.andrews@parliament.vic.gov.au) and the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Minister Lily D’Ambrosio (lily.d’ambrosio@parliament.vic.gov.au) to call for the protection of wombats in ALL Victorian parishes. Now is the time to have your individual voice heard!
5. Sign and share these petitions far and wide:

https://www.change.org/p/daniel-andrews-stop-the-slaughter-of-wombats-in-victoria

DELWP regulates the Authority to Control Wildlife (ATCW) permit system for killing hundreds of thousands of native animals every year. ATCW permits are given to applicant landholders to scare or kill wildlife on their land that landowners claim are damaging fences, eating crops, or spooking horses. In the case of wombats, some farmers want them eradicated because their burrow systems can be dangerous for cattle and sheep.

However, for 193 parishes in Victoria, wombats are not considered worthy of protection, and landowners can kill as many as they like without an ATCW. This means there is absolutely no monitoring of welfare outcomes for wombats in these areas. If landowners can legally kill wombats on private land, what stops overseas tourists from hunting them for recreational purposes?

Wombats are native to this land but are put into the same basket as introduced species like foxes, rabbits and deer. Wombats are considered ‘pests’ in the same way kangaroos are in some areas because they are deemed to have negative impacts on human land or food. The state government is responsible for these determinations and promotes this ideology. When our state leaders malign a native animal as a ‘pest’ in its own country, it gives rise to others, including overseas tourists, to consider killing these animals as a ‘good thing’ in Australia. Animal welfare concerns are not considered. Ask DELWP how they investigate breaches of animal welfare outcomes on native species. They will tell you that 99% of the time, they respond by calling the member of the public on the phone to educate them rather than enforce the law (Wildlife Act 1975 and Prevention to Cruelty to Animals Acts).

*Orphaned wombats in care pic. E. Kelly*

Breaches of the Wildlife Act 1975 and ATCW permits are not properly investigated and sometimes not investigated at all. Breaches for the disturbance or killing of ‘protected’ wildlife are rarely enforced, especially for animals DELWP considers ‘overabundant,’ e.g. wombat, kangaroo, koala, cockatoos, possums. DELWP states on regulatory material and ATCW conditions that breaching welfare conditions (e.g. non-head gunshots or pouch joeys not ‘dispatched’ on site) is illegal, and non-compliance may result in a fine or legal action. The AWPC know this to be untrue. Breaches are rarely investigated and rarely enforced. Landowners with ATCW permits (or without permits for wombats in some parishes) are not mandatorily required to have any experience with shooting to kill ‘protected’ or unprotected wildlife. The state government is dishonest about the ‘strict’ conditions they are supposed to regulate and enforce.

Wombats in unprotected parishes have even less ‘regulation’, investigation and enforcement of animal cruelty cases. The AWPC has had reports of wombat carcasses thrown in dump sites like rubbish. Wombats are run over deliberately, and at-foot joeys or in the pouch are left to die. In South Australia, wombats are buried alive by forestry workers and farmers. The animals suffer terribly from mange. Wombats are poisoned and gassed by farmers and their habitat is lost through land clearing for development, farming, planned burns and natural disasters. Native grasslands overrun with weeds (another area of failure by the state government) also damage their health.

Parishes where wombats were not protected in 2014:

North-East-Wombat-Parishes-10-02-041-2

East-Gippsland-Wombat-Parishes-10-02-04-2

Melbourne-North-Wombat-Parishes-10-02-041-2

*Wombats shot next to their burrows in Gippsland. Copyright B. Hansen, 2018.*

So how many wombats are there?

Who knows? The state government doesn’t know!

The state government was asked in a 2016 Legislative Assembly debate how many wombats lived in and around ‘unprotected’ parishes, including areas in the Murrindindi parish:

“What agency or agencies record wombat population data in Victoria?”

AND
“(4) What are the current estimated wombat populations:
(a) in and around Yarra Glen, Dixons Creek and Steels Creek;
(b) in and around Kinglake;
(c) in and around Yea, including Glenburn”

The government’s answer:
“The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) is responsible for the administration and enforcement of the Wildlife Act 1975 (Wildlife Act), under which all native wildlife, including kangaroos and wombats, and wildlife further classified as game, including deer, are protected.

DELWP does not undertake landscape-scale population surveys for common species, such as kangaroos, wombats and deer”.

Excerpts from the answer:
“ATCWs are only issued when there is a demonstrated need and all ATCWs include strict conditions to ensure that animals are controlled humanely. Anyone acting on an ATCW must, by law, comply with the conditions. Non-compliance may result in fines or legal action.

Elsewhere in Victoria, the Common Wombat remains protected and a person wishing to take or destroy Common Wombats must apply to DELWP for an ATCW in order to do so. There are no large scale control programs for Common Wombats in Victoria.

The Common Wombat is protected in Victoria, except for in 193 parishes in eastern Victoria where they have been declared unprotected by a Governor in Council Order under section 7A of the Wildlife Act. In areas where they are unprotected, Common Wombats may be controlled without the requirement for an authorisation. In these parishes, wombats can only be controlled by a landholder or occupier engaged in rural production or by their permanent employees. In addition, wombats can only be controlled by the use of firearms conforming to strict specifications.

Statistics on the number of ATCWs that are issued each year, including for kangaroos, wombats and deer, are available on the DELWP website”.

Cull-Numbers-and-Species-Approved-by-DELWP-2017

Wombat killed in it's natural habitat — *Wombat killed in its natural habitat Gippsland 2018. Copyright B. Hansen, 2018.*

In Summary
The state government has no idea how many wombats there are in Victoria and how many are impacted by disease, habitat loss, fire or hunting (killing). DELWP are failing to protect wildlife welfare even with legislation in place. The AWPC opposes the recreational hunting of any native animal and believes that the state government has vested economic and political interests in maligning wombats and other native species as ‘pests’.

AWPC Call for Protection of Common Wombats in ALL Parishes in Victoria

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