Guns, traps and baits to target 'ballistic' NSW feral pig problem

From the front line of the feral pig fight, Walgett farmer Enid Coupe's assessment is blunt: "They've just gone ballistic. There are just pigs everywhere.

"The pigs are killing lambs, they're destroying waterholes, spreading disease … and absolutely [causing] hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage."

According to the National Feral Pig Action Plan's latest report, the pests cost Australian agriculture more than $190 million annually, with Queensland and New South Wales suffering the biggest losses.

Ms Coupe said recent favourable seasons had fuelled a pig population boom, creating a problem that could no longer be tackled by individual landholders alone.

NSW Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty believes a new program across 600,000-hectares in the Walgett Shire, in north-west NSW, will help tackle the problem.

It brings together 120 landholders as well as state government land managers, who will use baiting, trapping and aerial culling to reduce feral pig numbers across five priority management areas.

Ms Moriarty said consultation with local farmers and community leaders had been central to developing the plans, which are rolling out this month.

"We want local buy-in, we want local people to be running this program with the support of the New South Wales government," she said.

She said feral pigs remained a significant biosecurity challenge across the state.

"We've taken out 1.1 million feral pigs since we've been in government,"

Ms Moriarty said.

"I don't say that as a point to say, 'Wow, look how much we've done.' I say that to give people a sense of the problem that we have in New South Wales."

One in, all in

The minister said the key to the program's success was all landholders being good neighbours.

"Pigs don't stop at the fence line … and we all have a responsibility to be tackling this issue,"

she said.

Ms Coupe welcomed the new coordinated approach and said landholders who failed to manage pests contributed to the growing problem.

"This trial of Walgett, where we're going to be under the LLS hammer and looked at and we have to do our bit, I think is excellent," she said.

"Because farmers who aren't doing their share are the reason why we've got such a big problem."

Ms Moriarty said the program was focused on cooperation rather than punishment, but warned compliance powers remained available for landholders who refused to meet their obligations under the Biosecurity Act 2015.

Penalties of up to $220,000 for individuals and $440,000 for corporations can be applied.

"If people refuse, if they don't get involved, it's not fair to the people who are doing it, it's not fair to taxpayers," she said.

The minister said the state government had committed $60 million to pest animal management over three years, including $16.3 million this financial year, with a significant portion of that funding supporting the Walgett program.

Coordinated control key to reducing numbers

Ms Moriarty said success would be measured through environmental, agricultural and productivity outcomes, rather than simply the number of pigs removed.

North West Local Land Services invasive species team leader Peter Dawson said tens of thousands of pigs are now estimated across the Walgett Shire alone

"Coming off the back of the previous drought, we saw numbers basically explode,"

he said.

Mr Dawson said the pilot would focus on five priority management areas in the Walgett local government area using a coordinated and integrated approach.

He said the program aimed to bring together landholders, National Parks, Crown Lands and other land managers, who had often been conducting pest control independently.

"If we're not communicating, we can't coordinate," he said.

He said baiting, trapping, ground shooting and aerial culling would all be needed to reduce pig numbers.

"There's no one silver bullet here for anything,"

he said.

That sentiment echoed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS).

Northern Inland branch director John Whittall said NPWS was responsible for about 65,000 hectares, or a little over 10 per cent of the 600,000-hectare trial area.

While some landholders have criticised public land managers in the past, Mr Whittall said National Parks had maintained ongoing feral pig control programs.

"Over the past 18 months for example, at Narran Lakes, which is in Walgett [LGA], we've controlled about 4,000 pigs," he said.

"We know that feral pigs that just don't stay in the one place ...  move around and can reproduce quite quickly.

"So if we can make a coordinated approach across a big area of land, we can control the animal a lot more efficiently and get a better result for everybody."