Bloody skippies!

[NTSOG]

G'day,

I've just finished hay cutting. Not only is the season poor due to lack of moisture in the soil, but the damned skippies have really eaten the guts out of the grass. I think I'm going to apply for a licence to cull some of the buggers. Forty years ago there was a small mob of 6 or so generally out on the back paddock. That mob has grown to around 36 as we improved the soil - lime and more lime! - which was very sour and produced little pasture in the 1980s. A bloke about half a mile down the road had a pro shooter in three weeks ago to shoot 40 on a permit. I don't mid a small mob, but there's a limit. At night I see them in every paddock.

Jim

[Blr243]

I can see how on a small block a hundred would be considered grazing pressure you shouldn’t have to tolerate, but how does the permit issue ing dept see it. Do u get results by contsratly hassling them , or if u can convince them u have a problem or if you have thousands ? What’s the go ?

[bladeracer]

G'day,

I've just finished hay cutting. Not only is the season poor due to lack of moisture in the soil, but the damned skippies have really eaten the guts out of the grass. I think I'm going to apply for a licence to cull some of the buggers. Forty years ago there was a small mob of 6 or so generally out on the back paddock. That mob has grown to around 36 as we improved the soil - lime and more lime! - which was very sour and produced little pasture in the 1980s. A bloke about half a mile down the road had a pro shooter in three weeks ago to shoot 40 on a permit. I don't mid a small mob, but there's a limit. At night I see them in every paddock.

Jim

I looked into it a few years ago and frankly, it was too hard. You have to show all the efforts you've made to inflict the problem onto your neighbours before they'll give you cull permits. We have a regular pack that varies between about fifteen and thirty, and some lone wallabies that hang around.

[Wapiti]

Best to have a go Jim, and apply for a permit. You see what happens when you don't keep up with controlling them, their numbers keep increasing until they devoid your country of any useful feed. The problem will just get worse.

I'm guilty of that too, been a bit slack. As I put more and more large paddocks under exclusion fencing, I have to keep the greys, wallaroos and wallabies within it under control, same as managing your stock numbers to feed. They eat too, and must be kept in check.
I hate doing it, and there's just nobody around who can be trusted any more. Wierd how when you HAVE to do something, it becomes a chore.

[bigpete]

Its not that hard to get a permit. Not in SA at least. I've been the nominated shooter on dozens of permits on blocks from 20 acres to 2000.

[Larry]

Ive gone through the process several times first time it can take a little while the Animal Wildlife officer will visit you by appointment to see the issue first hand and check your property for impact and safety and question you over your shooting experience.

[Wapiti]

The Toowoomba blokes have never visited me, they ask, how many would you reckon you have every square km?
If I say, I want a Damage Mitigation Permit (what they call it up here anyway) for 500 Eastern Grey roos and 100 Wallaroos, I'll get a permit for 300.
Main thing is that you have one and complete the Return Of Operations form as you go. That way, no official mongrels can bust you for shooting native animals and taking your firearms license away.