Pest animal management syndicates are a successful management response to improve the overall effectiveness of pest animal management activities in your region. They enable neighbours to understand what pest animal activities are being undertaken in the region, as well as being a useful framework to plan and deliver improved pest animal coordinated programs, including 1080 baiting and trapping programs.
Creating a pest animal syndicate is an easy process. The following three steps provides a basic framework for how you can develop a pest animal syndicate.
- Contact your local government’s biosecurity officer and organise a face-to-face meeting
The first step when developing a pest animal syndicate is to contact your local government’s biosecurity team and organise a meeting to discuss your syndicate plans. Local government biosecurity officers can not only assist in the planning stages through the provision of neighbour contact details and property satellite maps, they can also discuss what local assistance programs your syndicate may be eligible for. These include:
- 1080 baiting programs;
- Access to feral pig cage traps; and
- Access to wild dog foot hold traps.
- Contact your neighbours and organise a meeting to plan an annual plan of action
After meeting with your local government biosecurity team, the next step is to contact your neighbours and organise a meeting over a cup of tea to discuss developing an annual plan of action. To assist in the development of the annual plan of action, consider identifying:
- The management goals and objectives of each neighbour;
- what pest animal control activities are currently being undertaken;
- what areas pest animals regularly utilise and/or impact;
- opportunities to better coordinate and/or align existing/future programs;
- whether any monitoring records have been collected on impacts or number of animals caught;
- what activities can be undertaken utilising existing resources; and
- whether any additional resources are needed to achieve identified priorities and how they can be sourced (i.e. improved knowledge on trapping methods).
- Implement
After developing an annual action plan, it is time to implement! Remember to note what activities have been undertaken and whether they were successful. This information is important when reviewing your annual action plan and identifying what aspects of the management plan can be improved.
Landholders in Ironpot, South Burnett Regional Council are effectively using a pest animal syndicate to coordinate a trapper to manage wild dog impacts on their beef enterprises. To find out more on how this pest animal syndicate was created, CLICK HERE.
Additional resources
- Guidelines for Preparing a Working Plan to Manage Wild Dogs (brown book)
- Working Plan to Manage Wild Dogs (green book)
- How to set up an incorporated association
This website has been developed through funding by the Queensland Government as part of the Better Partnership Project.