WA Farmers Warn of Dire Consequences as Dingo Protection Halts Sheep Flock Cull

West Australian livestock farmers have warned of dire consequences for the state's sheep flock after Indigenous groups and a government department moved to protect dingoes on Wheatbelt land due to their cultural significance.

In an email sent to its members, the Central Wheatbelt Biosecurity Association (CWBA) said permits which had allowed it to bait and trap dingoes across 340,000 hectares of reserve land in the Dalwallinu, Morawa and Perenjori shires had not been renewed, and that dog control must stop from today.

The parcels of land where the dogs were protected were inside the State Barrier fence, a 1,400 kilometre vermin-proof fence which stretches from Kalbarri to Esperance.

Most of WA's sheep flock, worth $1 billion, is also located inside the fence.

CWBA chair Chris Patmore said livestock would suffer as a result.

"It's extremely disappointing and frustrating," he said.

"It's 20 per cent of the area that the CWBA looks after, but about 80 per cent of our dog control work is done on that land.

The CWBA said the decision to stop the cull came from the Yamatji Nation Joint Management Body, a sub group of the Yamatji Southern Regional Corporation which jointly manages conservation land with the Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions (DBCA).

Cultural importance

DBCA refused the ABC's request for an interview but provided a statement saying dingoes had significant cultural importance to the Yamatji traditional owners and that it had "a legislative responsibility to recognise and respect these values in its management practices".

"For this reason, the joint management body has not supported the ongoing baiting of dingoes on jointly managed Yamatji conservation estate," the statement said.

The Yamatji Southern Regional Corporation referred the ABC's request for an interview to the DBCA.

Mr Patmore said his group was given a list of reasons as to why the permits were not renewed.

"The most important thing seems to be dingo dreaming. I'm not sure how dingo dreaming can override the rights of a farmer nearby to run livestock and make a living," he said.

Further south in Esperance, farmers have also been told they cannot control wild dogs in some areas of jointly managed land. The local biosecurity association is hoping negotiations will result in the ruling being changed.

'Frank discussions'

The government has spent more than $20 million upgrading and extending the State Barrier fence over the past 15 years, with some of the money coming from wild dog action plans, which are broad landscape plans to protect small livestock industries such as sheep farming.

Wild dogs, or dingoes, are a declared pest in Western Australia under the Biosecurity and Agriculture Management (BAM) Act 2007, but are also listed as a protected native fauna under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016.

All landholders and land managers are obliged to control declared pests on their land. However, groups including the Greens and the Animal Justice Party want better dingo protection.

WA's Biosecurity Council is investigating the conflict between the two acts and will report to state Agriculture Minister Jackie Jarvis.

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) has also been consulting with stakeholders regarding future management priorities for wild dogs.

The minister, who oversees the work of the DPIRD but not the DBCA, said she understood farmers' concerns about the increased risk of stock attacks, but said that landowners were within their rights to refuse pest management on their lands.

"I'd really encourage those farm businesses and biosecurity groups to reach out to the traditional custodians and have a frank discussion about what could be done," she said.

Mr Patmore said his group had two brief meetings with the Yamatji Nation Joint Management Body, which he described as "fairly unsuccessful".

"We are trying to seek some clarity as to what we can do here," he said.

"Farmers' livelihoods are at risk here. We can't just sit back and watch this happen. We have to come to a sensible outcome where we can still do dog control work where it's affecting local farmers."