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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 31(3)

Sharing Skippy: how can landholders be involved in kangaroo production in Australia?

Rosie Cooney A C , Alex Baumber A , Peter Ampt A and George Wilson B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Fate Program, Institute of Environmental Studies, Vallentine Annexe, University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW 2052, Australia.

B Australian Wildlife Services, 51 Stonehaven Crescent, Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia.

C Corresponding author. Email: rosie.cooney@unsw.edu.au

The Rangeland Journal 31(3) 283-292 https://doi.org/10.1071/RJ08025
Submitted: 6 June 2008  Accepted: 2 December 2008   Published: 28 August 2009

Abstract

For 2 decades, calls for Australian rangeland landholders to expand their reliance on the abundant species of native kangaroos and decrease their reliance on introduced stock have been made. These calls have received recent impetus from the challenge of climate change. Arguments for landholder involvement in kangaroo production include reduced greenhouse gas emissions, better management of total grazing pressure, reduced land degradation, improved vegetation and biodiversity outcomes, and greater valuation of kangaroos by landholders. However, there is little understanding of how landholders could be involved in kangaroo harvest and production, and there is a widespread misconception that this would include domestication, fencing, mustering and trucking. This paper reviews the options for landholder involvement in managing and harvesting wild kangaroos, and assesses the possible benefits and feasibility of such options. We conclude that collaboration among landholders, as well as between landholders and harvesters, forms the basis of any preferred option, and set out a proposed operating model based on the formation of a kangaroo management, processing and marketing co-operative.

Additional keywords: conservation, co-operative, sustainable use, total grazing pressure, wildlife management.


Acknowledgments

This work has benefited from particularly extensive input and discussion with Tom Garrett, who we would like to sincerely thank. We would particularly like to acknowledge and thank Carley and Nick Walker for the origins of the ‘kangaroo manager’ model. We would also like to acknowledge and thank the following for their valuable input: Brad Cooper, Stacey Henry, Bim Struss, Jeff Campbell, Merv Phillips, Alan Brady, Ray Borda, Doug Jobson, Dana Thomsen and Sheree Scott; and all the other landholders and harvesters from the SWEs and beyond that have taken part in meetings and workshops.


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