FAQs

The new plan describes the South Australian Government’s proposal to extend the commercial kangaroo harvesting zone to cover the entire state, excluding metropolitan Adelaide, and, for cultural reasons, the Alinytjara Wiluṟara Natural Resources Management region.

This will create four new harvest sub-regions: Hills and Fleurieu, Kangaroo Island, Lower South East and Upper South East, and an extension to the existing Murray Mallee and Mid North sub-regions.

In these areas, kangaroo and/or wallaby species are abundant and causing damage to environmental values, agricultural land, infrastructure or public safety.

It is also proposed that four additional kangaroo species (tammar wallaby, Kangaroo Island sub-species of western grey kangaroo, eastern grey kangaroo and red-necked wallaby) are permitted to be commercially harvested.

 Your comments are being sought on the proposed:

1. new harvesting areas
2. new species
3. changes to the methods for determining harvesting quotas

Commercial harvesting is the humane culling of wild kangaroos by professional shooters. The kangaroo carcasses can then be sold for meat and leather production. Since European settlement, the common kangaroo and wallaby species have increased in abundance due to changes in land use, habitat modification, increased artificial water points and reduced predation. Commercial harvesting is an additional land management option available to landholders to reduce the damage caused by these common kangaroo species on the environment, agricultural and pastoral lands; support kangaroo welfare and reduce the danger to motorists. It also allows for kangaroo carcasses to be used for meat or skin production rather than left on the ground after culling non-commercially.

The management plan enables commercial harvesting to take place while ensuring the long-term conservation of the kangaroo species across South Australia. It is based on an adaptive management framework that allows the revision of management practices informed by the best scientific knowledge available and monitoring of kangaroo abundance over time. However, current kangaroo management practices have been insufficient in reducing the kangaroo population across the state and is geared toward the conservation of the species rather than managing the overabundance.

Since 2018, when the current plan was adopted, there has been an unprecedented increase in kangaroo numbers across much of South Australia. Drying conditions have made some impact on the large numbers in the north of the state, but populations remain high in southern regions of the state. Primary producers and regional communities have felt constrained in their ability to manage the overabundance of kangaroos within the current management system.

Primary producers, local government, some conservationists and the kangaroo industry are calling for more flexibility in commercial kangaroo management to help land managers reduce kangaroo impacts on agriculture and the environment. The South Australian Government has agreed to embark on creating a new model for commercial kangaroo harvesting across the state. The Department for Environment and Water has worked through a variety of options for how the commercial industry is managed across the state to make sure that we achieve an ecologically sustainable outcome. The draft South Australian Commercial Kangaroo Management Plan 2020-2024 has been developed to present the new management strategies and seek input from interested parties to ensure the best options are selected.

To enable changes to the commercial kangaroo industry, government must also make amendments to the National Parks and Wildlife (Kangaroo Harvesting) Regulations 2018 to allow the new kangaroo species to be harvested.