FLOOD OF WILD DOGS

Hokitika Guardian, 7 June 1921, Page 4

FLOOD OF WILD DOGS

NEW SOUTH WALES INVADED

SYDNEY, May 24

Away up in tbe almost unknown centre of Australia, in that region in which the border lines of Queensland, the Northern Territory and South Australia meet, is the real home of the dingo, or wild that hundreds of thousands oi the wild, savage creatures are hied there in the .vildoriioss every year. Their numbers must be increasing, for the dingo flood is pushing east and south, and the animals are now a serious menace in districts where, a few years ago, they were unknown.

lu north-east New South Wales, in the great triangle formed by the Daring river, the country is parcelled out among huge sheep stations. Millions and millions of siieep run over that wild :rea. But early in the present century the sheep flocks began to he seriously hanassed in these districts by wild dogs from tin; north-west. South-west Queensland had been largely devoted to sheep, hut the dingoes from the centre of the Continent made conditions un■ii(lnraillo. So that South Queensland landowners gradually changed over to cattle. The dingo, although he is death to lambs and weak sheep, will not tackle nttlo. By 1902 or thereabouts sheep stations had largely disappeared from the Queensland border districts. Then it appeared that the baffled dingoes turned south, for the N.S.W. sheepowners beyond the Darling began to rejKirt their attentions in every direet ion.

The Government then got busy, and built hundreds of miles of dog fences along the Queensland-South Australian borders. This _ partly stopped the invasion, and vigorous war on the dingoes within the fences greatly reduced their numbers. Then everyone got careless. The fences were not completed, for a groat gap was left right up in the corner, and they were not properly maintained. Sandstorms are frequent up there in the semi-desert regions. The dog fences broke the wind, sand ..Is formed, and slowly rose to the level of the fences, and the gratified dingoes simply walked across. For the last five years, the outcry against the ever-increasing hordes of dingoes lias been growing. Now it is found, by a survey of the situation, that a great proportion of the , sheep stations in the north-west have been changed into cattle stations, on account of the wild dogs, and the existence of the most valuable section of New South Wales pastoral industry—the sheep—is actually threatened. The seriousness of the position has alarmed the Government, which is now r taking active measures to fight the wild dogs and drive them hack into the central deserts. Thus the great sheep industry .may yet he saved.