This week Whitsunday Regional Council completed a decade of its feral pig culling program in the region.
The council’s Whitsunday Aerial Feral Animal Control Program has been successfully running for ten years to quell the major impacts of feral pig populations on environmental and agricultural systems.
Feral pigs are estimated to cause $12.6 million dollars’ worth of damage each year in the Whitsunday region alone.
Conducting over 130 flights, the program has seen the removal of almost 12,300 feral pigs, with council conducting 20 to 35 flights per year.
The local council’s efforts have seen them earn national plaudits, with the program selected as a case study for the National Feral Pig Action Plan.
The local scale program has an operating budget of up to $170,000 per year and has been active across five local government areas.
Whitsunday Regional Council Manager of Natural Resource Management Scott Hardy said the program has worked alongside 80 land managers and up to 19 organisations.
“We’ve worked with Mackay, Isaac, Charters Towers and the Burdekin with great results in removing the pigs in neighbouring shires as well as our own,” Mr Hardy said.
“I have to commend council worker Bren Fuller on his work in this as our staff member up in the helicopter doing the hard work.”
Although it may seem unsavoury to some, the program has a state government backing, enforced as part of the Queensland Biosecurity Act 2014 in which local governments have a role in coordinating the control and reduction of restricted and prohibited pest animals.
“There may be a small number of people who may dislike the euthanising of animals,” Mr Hardy said.
“[But] relatively small council contributions towards the Program are yielding measurable benefits to the agricultural sector and the Whitsunday environment.”
Studies state that, environmentally, feral pigs damage waterways, soil, and ground cover, as well as impacting native species through predation and the carrying of diseases.
Feral pigs are a Queensland bane, but Whitsunday Regional Council have made inroads in their ten-year culling program
