‘No dingoes’ meeting

People against the concept of introducing dingoes into Grampians National Park will gather at a public meeting at Dunkeld Community Centre next month.

The ‘No Dingoes’ public meeting will start at 7pm at Dunkeld Community Centre on April 7.

John and Rhonda Crawford from Victoria Valley’s Rock-bank Merino and Poll Merino Stud have organised the gathering and invited politicians and the media as well as the general public.

Their latest online petition against the introduction of dingoes to the park had 336 signatures late last week and they were confident they had about 600 overall.

The stud is promoting the meeting as an opportunity to ‘update community, farmers, stock agents and businesses affected by these crazy recommendations’.

The meeting is in response to a Victorian Parliament Legislative Council Environment and Planning Committee Inquiry into ecosystem decline in Victoria late last year.

One of the inquiry recommendations was to trial dingo introduction into the park to assess benefits of having an extra apex predator in the environment to help balance natural parkland ecology.

This recommendation came with a series of provisos including a compensation scheme for farmers who lost stock to predator attacks.

Another was to change the status of dingoes based on establishing an understanding of the species’ genetics and to greater explore nonlethal ways of dealing with dingoes and wild dogs in relation to agriculture.

A Greater Gariwerd Landscape Draft Management Plan also speculated about the potential of introducing dingoes into the park based on cultural as well as ecological benefits.

The idea has, for several months, attracted considerable debate.

The Crawfords have urged people to bring placards or signs to the meeting to help generate attention about the issue.