Australia’s battle against the damage caused by feral creatures ranging from cats and camels to goats and pigs is an ongoing, and seemingly endless, one.
Most long-term, bush-loving grey nomads will have seen enough to at least get a sense of the scale of the problem. Some caravanners and motorhomers may have experienced first-hand the mayhem that a feral pig, for example, can wreak at a campsite. The most famous example was that of a pig nicknamed ‘Swino’ who regularly wreaked havoc at the De Grey River rest area in Westen Australia back in 2013, rifling through rubbish and campers’ possessions. On one famous night he drank 18 cans of beer. Swino was eventually run over by a passing truck.
While Swino’s antics may have given a chuckle to many, the farmers directly affected by the feral pig menace don’t find the threat to their livelihood to be a laughing matter. At Mary Valley, west of Gympie, the onset of the breeding season has seen feral pigs numbers soar, despite a massive trapping and management program last year.
The Australian Macadamia Society provided traps and surveillance equipment to the Mary River Catchment Coordinating Committee, and the cameras captured frightening images of the numbers and destructive capability of the sows and piglets.
But it hasn’t been enough.
Mary River Catchment Coordinating Committee’s Steve Burgess told the ABC it took a mix of fencing, trapping, shooting, dogging and baiting to suit each situation and each group of wily pigs.
“It’s not a quick fix … you don’t just go out and get rid of pigs and then the problem’s solved,” he said. “You’re going to be doing it for a long time.”
Mr Burgess said the main thing to focus on was killing sows and piglets because they bred quickly. And he said to manage pigs it was imperative to learn their habits, and place traps near waterways.
“The pigs are really, really, really smart,” he said. “It’s a real battle of wits I reckon.”
Farmer Wolfgang Lanz told the ABC that he had taken to sitting in a tree house in a massive fig tree and shooting the pigs.
“One hundred per cent, if I see a pig I can shoot it from here,” Mr Lanz said. “The most I saw Sunday was about 28 to 30 pigs and all fairly big ones … I don’t know the money value, but last year I collected about 600 kilograms of pecan nuts myself and I bet they ate at least twice as many.”
Swino’s wild night
Swino lived fast, died young
Be happy to help out either trapping or taking a dog along for a reasonable time.