In 2024, the state government extended the the dingo unprotection order in eastern Victoria until 1 January 2028.
This meant that farmers contending with canids coming out of the Mansfield Shire bush to hunt on shire farms would be able to continue in their efforts to mitigate the impacts of livestock predation by using lethal control on private land, while DEECA staff would be able use lethal control on public land within a 3km buffer zone along the boundaries of private land.
At the time, DEECA confirmed that it would continue collaborating with rural communities while providing practical and direct on-ground support to farmers to mitigate the impacts of predation on livestock.
Farmers with borders on Mount Samaria State Park have now come forward to raise concerns that this is not the case.
The Dawes family has farmed a landholding that shares a border with Mount Samaria State Park since 1873.
While that means the Dawes enjoy near unrivalled access to the state park, anything living within the bush there enjoys the same access to the Dawes farm.
And its flock of sheep.
“It is only in the last 30 years that we have had problems with dogs,” David Dawes said.
“Now we lose 100 sheep a year.
“We’ve had sheep walking around with their insides hanging outside of them.
“We’ve had rams turned infertile through the stress they go through when they’re chased around the paddocks.
“It does nothing for your mental health or your enjoyment of life when you regularly have to shoot your own animals to end their suffering."
Mr Dawes is frustrated that he has not received practical and direct on-ground support through DEECA's Vertebrate Species Management Program.
"Earlier this year, a DEECA representative told me that the state park was to be managed by Parks and the Taungurung and that DEECA was no longer able to control wild dogs in the state park," he said.
"All DEECA can do now is put up cameras.”
Parks Victoria declined to comment on the matter but through its website, it states its pride at entering into a joint management arrangement with the Taungurung Land and Waters Council (TLaWC) for Mount Samaria State Park, an Aboriginal cultural landscape, stating its respect for the deep and continuing connection the Taungurung people have to Mount Samaria State Park, recognising their ongoing role in caring for Country.
A spokesperson for the TLaWC recently said that they would not be making further comment on the matter of canids living in the bush having issued a statement expressing their deep concern at the extension of the dingo unprotection order in 2024.
DEECA did not confirm whether it had ceased trapping and baiting of canids in Mount Samaria State Park nor did it confirm whether restrictions had been placed upon
its efforts to control canids in Mount Samaria State Park by the joint management partners.
DEECA said that in Victoria, the dingo is listed as a threatened species under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 and is considered protected wildlife under the Wildlife Act 1975.
Private land managers, they said, are encouraged to use non-lethal control measures including exclusion fencing, protective on-farm animal husbandry practices and guardian animals as means of reducing the impacts of the predation of livestock at a local level.
“We understand the frustration from farmers who want to protect their livestock, that is why the government has invested over $2.5 million in a support package to fund trials, research and on-ground advice on non-lethal dingo management strategies to protect from livestock attacks while protecting vulnerable dingo populations from extinction.
"The Vertebrate Species Management Program is working with landholders across Victoria to minimise the impact of predation on livestock, the program is tailored to meet the specific needs of different locations on both public and private land.
"We recognise that predation on livestock is a significant issue for primary producers and the need to manage risk of injury and damage to livestock arising from dingo attacks.”
The Dawes are not the only landholders to have expressed their frustration that DEECA was unable to support them by controlling predators coming out of the state park.
One seventh-generation landholder in Barjarg, another who shares a boundary with Mount Samaria State Park, said that he is unable to farm one third of his 3000-acre landholding as it borders the bush of the state park, from which canids come out to hunt.
He said DEECA told him it was unable to control predators in the 3km buffer onto public land and suggested he invest in predator proof fencing along the 9 km boundary between his farm and the state park.
He has installed electric fencing along the boundary; it has yet to keep predators from his livestock.