Eden Park Kangaroo Cull

During October 2010 the Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE (NMIT) applied for and received a 12-month permit from the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment for the Eden Park Kangaroo Cull - to cull 300 eastern grey kangaroos on its 320 hectare Eden Park Vineyard and farm and Northern Lodge equine stud. NMIT claimed that more than 1500 kangaroos were in competition for pasture, and damaging fencing, grapevines and netting.

The permit was issued under the Wildlife Act (1975) after NMIT commissioned wildlife management group Ecoplan to do an independent assessment which recommended a cull of 300 kangaroos each year for three years. The report by Ecoplan estimated 710 kangaroos were on the property, give or take 70, and suggested 900 kangaroos should be destroyed over three years. The report also recommended annual counts be conducted in June or July.

Eden Park residents and members of the Australian Society for Kangaroos immediately sought a review of wildlife culling and questioned whether non-lethal means of controlling kangaroo populations had been effectively tried.

In December 2010 the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment defended the decision to issue a permit to cull the kangaroos with a spokesperson saying that a build-up in the population of kangaroos may present a public safety risk around roads and urban areas, and that the cull was a last resort.

The cull met with opposition from residents, Whittlesea Council and members of the Australian Society for Kangaroos with protests and 24-hour vigils outside the Eden Park property.

In February 2011 Whittlesea Council voted unanimously to ask the Department of Sustainability and Environment to suspend the cull. Eden Park is classified as a rural property, which means that Council cannot control firearms use on the property through classification of the area as a populous place. Four of five local members of parliament called on the State Government to stop the Eden Park Kangaroo Cull.

In March 2011 protesters launched a round the clock vigil of the Eden Park property and threatened to physically intervene to stop the cull.

Criticism of the Ecoplan report and the kangaroo cull were made by Professor Steve Garlick from The Sustainability Research Centre at the University of the Sunshine Coast, who stated on 13 September 2011:

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