“It is time Australians woke up to the fact that all around the world there is abhorrence over the virtually uncontrolled slaughter of the majority of Kangaroos. The suggestions that there has been proper control and conservation have been proved to be a lie and nonsense”. Senator Murphy, Commonwealth Government of Australia, 1973

Between 2011 and 2014 the four state governments of Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia, claimed that Kangaroo populations had risen from 25,158,026 to 53,198,517 over the period, more than doubling. This coincided with a major push to open up Victoria to the commercial exploitation of Kangaroos and a major marketing effort, which went around the globe, claiming that there were two Kangaroos for every Australian and the pest marketing spin began in earnest. The problem is that the claims about increasing population numbers are biologically impossible therefore there was zero probability that the claim was correct.

We can ask ourselves how a national government could allow this and even fund projects to help the exploitation? With all the pressure the Victorian Government opened up Victoria to commercial Kangaroo shooters in 2014, initially as a trial.

“This decision is about the sustainable management of Kangaroos in Victoria and ensuring commercial drivers don’t influence the current Authority to Control Wildlife system”. Lily D”Ambrosio, Victorian Environment Minister

The killing of Kangaroos in Victoria increased by times 4.35, if we were comparing like with like, two species, not three, that multiplier would be higher.

In the last four years, during which time commercial exploitation in Victoria was fully operational (includes 2024) the Victorian Government has targeted 849,750 (this number for just the two commercially exploited species and not including the 225,000 joeys they would have killed in the process if quotas had been met).

Even with Victoria in the mix, the decline of actual take against quota continues.

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Things were also brewing in California

Over many decades we have had a lot to do with California, from music, to publishing, to the arts and film making, California’s cultural institutions and the Internet.

Here is a brief history, in California and since 1971 it has been illegal to import Kangaroo products. In 2007 a moratorium was placed on that ban, largely due to the lobbying efforts of sportswear companies that had included Kangaroo skins in their products, particularly for shoes (cleats). The moratorium ended on January 1, 2016, and the import ban again covers the import, possession with intent to sell and the sale of Kangaroo parts. Violators face fines or up to six months in jail.

In 2016, and as part of the lobbying efforts by the Australian Government to ensure the moratorium continued, Australia’s Commonwealth Government got itself into difficulties with California’s legislators. The government itself under investigation for possibly violating Californian law through its lobbying efforts and indirectly its financial support of this lobbying.

Statements from the Fair Political Practices Commission included:

"This appears to be a clear attempt to obscure a foreign government's lobbying activities to repeal a necessary animal protection statute" and

"Foreign governments must use diplomatic negotiations to influence trade policies, but the Government of Australia has instead avoided transparency and funnelled money through an Australian trade association in order to directly impact the legislative debate in California”.

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1980-2000: Notes on table

Mainland species commercially exploited in the period:

• Red Kangaroo
• Euro / Wallaroo
• Eastern Grey Kangaroo
• Western Grey Kangaroo
• Whiptail Wallaby
• Swamp Wallaby
• Bennetts Wallaby

• The 1982 quota includes 500 Wallabia bicolor (Swamp Wallaby) and 700 M. rufogriseus (Bennetts Wallaby) for Victoria.
• In 1996, South Australia refined the setting of the commercial quota to provide for the separate identification of what the government described as a sustainable use component to the quota and an additional land mitigation component. The government stated that the latter component will be released only when there is an identified threat to land management goals in an area and the sustainable component of the quota has been taken. Individual management strategies were being developed for each management district and these will be progressively refined during 1997. This describes in part why Kangaroo populations in South Australia are now so low, despite claims to the opposite.
• New South Wales took a partial step to do the same as South Australia by including provision for animals previously killed in the commercial zone under non-commercial permits to be included as an identified component of the quota (damage mitigation quota). At the time saying that this part of the quota will be released only when the regional commercial quota has been used and then only based on consideration of property inspections, Kangaroo population trends and climatic trends.

The Commercial trade in Kangaroos was banned by the Victorian Government after a trial in the early 1980s. These were the species on the commercial list at that time:

• Red-necked Wallaby Macropus rufogriseus
• Black Wallaby or Swamp Wallaby Wallabia bicolor ‍
• Western Grey Kangaroo Macropus fuliginosus ‍
• Eastern Grey Kangaroo Macropus giganteus
• Red Kangaroo Macropus rufus

For all species combined, the quota in 1982 was 33,000 animals.

"Commercial use of culled Kangaroos was attempted in Victoria in the 1980s to test the viability of a Kangaroo industry in this state. It did not prove to be viable". The Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE)

The commercial exploitation of Kangaroos in Victoria was reintroduced in 2014, became state wide on private land in 2019 and will be extended to public land in January 2025. The commercial quota for Kangaroos in Victoria in 2023 was 165,000 and in 2024, 155,000. A 33,000 quota across 5 species has become a 155,000 quota across just 2 species.

NOTE: Population estimates for the earlier period in the table now missing from Commonwealth Government database.

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2010-2024: Notes on table

Mainland species commercially exploited in the period:

• Red Kangaroo
• Euro / Wallaroo
• Eastern Grey Kangaroo
• Western Grey Kangaroo including Kangaroo Island Sooty Kangaroo
• Tammar Wallaby

NOTE: Prey switching, adding new species, occurs at state level – for example South Australia has recently added the Eastern Grey Kangaroo, Tammar Wallaby and Sooty Kangaroo to its commercial list.

NOTE: Commercial exploitation in Tasmania adds three more species to the commercial list in the period (data not included above):

• Pademelon
• Bennetts Wallaby
• Forester Kangaroo

Population estimates are from state quota reports. Reports including population estimates for the current year and quotas for the following year are submitted to the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment annually by 30 November. Population estimates are based on aerial and ground surveys and are for the areas within Australia where commercial exploitation of Kangaroos occurs. In the case of the above table the population estimate year has been aligned with the quota year.

• The quotas from state quota reports are based on the prior year's population estimates.
• Special quotas are from state quota reports. These are not included in the data above. The purpose of the special quota is to provide for the commercial utilisation of Kangaroos that would have otherwise been shot under the normal non-commercial licensing system and left in the field. Special quotas are only allocated when the state management agency has determined that there is a need.
• Actual take is from state annual reports. Reports including actual take data for the previous calendar year are submitted to the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment.
• Queensland population and sustainable quota estimates have been rounded to the nearest 50.
• For quota purposes, Eastern and Western Grey Kangaroos are treated as 'grey Kangaroos'.
• Victoria included in the Australian data for the first time in 2021.
• Excludes Tasmania and 3 species which are exploited commercially. The commercial exploitation of Macropods (and Possums) in Tasmania is extensive, but Tasmania manages to keep itself off the books when it comes to reporting the mass killing to Canberra for inclusion in the Australian data. The Victorian Government claims Tasmania does not trade wildlife into Victoria. This is hard to believe given that Victorian pet food shops are replete with Wallaby body parts.
• Sooty Kangaroo (SA) classified as Western Grey Kangaroo for this purpose.
• Excludes joeys killed as a consequence of commercial exploitation (add 25 per cent to yearly actual as a rough estimate).

The table shows that the highest quota since 1980 was in 2014 at 8,194,624 (actual take was 20 per cent of quota in that year), the lowest quota was in 2020 at 1,183,446 (actual take against quota was again 20 per cent in that year). Thus quotas remain correspondingly too high even as populations decline.

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Historical note

From Commonwealth Government records: In January 1973, the Commonwealth Government Minister for Customs and Excise announced that he would not consent to the export of Kangaroo products as from 1 April 1973 until he was assured by the Minister for Environment and Conservation that Kangaroo killing would not endanger the species. The export of Kangaroo products was prohibited under item 1 and item 8 of the Second Schedule of the Customs (Prohibited Exports) Regulation without the prior consent of the Minister for Customs and Excise.

History continues to repeat itself:

“A ban on the commercial importation of products derived from Red, Eastern Grey and Western Grey Kangaroos was imposed by the Fish and Wildlife Service of the United States Department of the Interior from 30 December 1974, because the Service believed that continued killing would endanger those species. The three species were also listed as 'threatened species' under the United States Endangered Species Act 1973”.

Kangaroo management programmes for five states, including New South Wales, were approved and exports permitted progressively between February 1975 and June 1976. Quotas which set upper limits on the numbers of each species killed under the programmes were introduced and reviewed annually.

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Early survey history

• New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service began conducting aerial Kangaroo population surveys in 1975-76. Monitor blocks were flown until 1983. From then on, the entire Western Plains were surveyed covering 500,000 square km. During these surveys, Grey Kangaroos, were split Eastern Greys 70 per cent and Western Greys 30 per cent because of the difficulties in distinguishing the species. The Eastern Highlands were included in the surveys and population estimates from 1989 (Eastern Grey Kangaroos). Wallaroos, initially counted by ground surveys, were counted by helicopter surveys from 1993. Other changes in methodology have occurred since that time.
• Queensland: Surveys using fixed-wing aircraft commenced in 1980 and were conducted by the CSIRO to 1984. ANPWS and CSIRO jointly undertook surveys annually for 1985-92. The survey area was around 450,000 square km.
• South Australia: Aerial surveys began in 1978 and occur annually. The survey area was around 240,000 square km. Since 1995, the population estimates have included an estimate of numbers outside the aerial survey area.
• Western Australia: The first aerial survey was done by CSIRO in 1981. Since 1981, triennial aerial surveys followed in1984, 1987, 1990, 1993 and conducted by ANPWS. The survey area was approximately 1.2 million square km.
• Victoria: Contemporary Kangaroo population surveys commenced in 2017, 3 years after the Kangaroo Pet Food Trial was introduced. From 2018 surveys have been conducted every two years.

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