Kangaroos fenced out of the golf course will be brought back in.
Camera IconKangaroos fenced out of the golf course will be brought back in. Credit: Supplied/Martin Kennealey d451330

Roos to go back to course

Laura PondNorth Coast Times

Sun City Country Club hosted a meeting last week following community concerns over fences erected on St Andrews Drive, which people believed left 80 to 100 kangaroos landlocked.

Northern Valleys Wildlife Support carer Sonia Cooke said the group had been “bombarded” with calls and messages from people concerned about the kangaroos.

“The kangaroos are just pushed and pushed, not relocated,” she said.

PerthNow Digital Edition.
Your local paper, whenever you want it.

Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE

Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.

READ NOW

“They need to be out of the golf course and into the national park.

Club president Greg Mitchell told representatives from the City of Wanneroo, Department of Parks and Wildlife, Yanchep Police, Northern Valleys Wildlife Support, Peet and Butler MLA John Quigley that they would assist the kangaroos back onto their land.

“To appease public perception and emotions, we will work with rangers to bring them back onto the course,” he said.

Mr Mitchell said 1.2m high boundary fencing existed around most of the course but the 1.8m fence was installed to stop vandals. “The fence went up because of vandals, not kangaroos,” he said.

Course superintendent Brad Anderson said the club had been mustering some of the kangaroos out to Yanchep National Park weekly with support from Parks and Wildlife.

“We try to gently coerce the roos back into that environment,” he said. “We do it as calmly and humanely as we can.”

Mr Anderson said 25 to 30 hours were spent each week managing the kangaroos and believed the course was not a “healthy” place for them to be.

“We have about 100 to 150 roos on any fairway at any given time; sometimes we get 250 on one fairway,” he said.

“Eventually we will become landlocked; we will be surrounded by houses.”

Mr Mitchell said encroaching residential developments were creating a problem for the kangaroos.

“We would like the City of Wanneroo to talk to new developers about fencing off corridors from their development,” he said.

“Because we will be landlocked we need to get them back to the national park; we need people to help us address the issue.

“There are 3000 kangaroos out there and they need to get back into the wild.”

Parks and Wildlife officer Kevin Morrison said moving the kangaroos from the course to the national park appeared to be the only option available.

“But in doing that we’re going to put pressure on the population in the national park,” he said. “It’s going to have an increase in deaths of kangaroos on roads and it’s going to be a significant danger for some time.

“The only alternative is to cull excess animals, otherwise they’re going to sort it out themselves.”

Mr Morrison agreed the club and department should work together but it was the landowner’s duty to address the problem.

“It’s not Parks and Wildlife’s responsibility to come up with a solution/mechanism to resolve this issue,” he said.

Mrs Cooke said the meeting was more positive than expected.

“There’s a bit of light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.