Council calls for rethink on wild dog fence

A section of completed dog fence on the South Australian border. Inset: Mayor of Bourke Shire Lachlan Ford. Photos TWH

Bourke Shire Council

Story: Kristin Murdock

Bourke Shire Council has formally expressed its frustration and disappointment after being advised the incomplete NSW/Queensland Border Wild Dog Fence Extension Project has been ‘closed’, despite a previous $37.5 million funding commitment.

At its ordinary meeting on Monday 23 February, Bourke Mayor, Cr Lachlan Ford, tabled correspondence from the NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, written on behalf of Minister for Agriculture and Regional NSW Tara Moriarty, advising that the project would not proceed.

The advice was received via correspondence to the Border Regional Organisation of Councils (BROC), of which Bourke Shire Council is a member.

The letter stated in part, that “due to escalating costs and declining benefits, the NSW Government will not extend the current NSW Border Wild Dog Fence along the Queensland border as initially proposed through the NSW Wild Dog Fence Extension project, and the project has been closed.”

Councillor Ford said that Bourke Council’s concern reflected a united concern among border councils that their communities had been let down.[…]

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