Pig issue puts people in the mud

CONCERNS have been raised about the prevalence of feral pigs within Golden Plains Shire, and some residents are seeking to find a solution.

Durdidwarrah resident Beverley Phillips lives on 25 acres in the Shire’s far east, on the edge of the Brisbane Ranges National Park and land managed by Central Highlands Water.

With the support of Trust for Nature, she said she has worked for many years to preserve the indigenous plant species on her property, but the vegetation was destroyed within moments by a sounder of feral pigs that roam the area.

“I have sat for years on my front veranda, admiring the meadow of extraordinary wildflowers from spring through to autumn, which I have carefully weeded,” she said.

“One night I returned home and saw all this heaped up soil. It had all been dug up by six pigs, eaten and ripped up down to bedrock.

“There are literally acres of it, both in my place and out in the national park; it’s been hammered. Will the vegetation come back? I don’t know. But it will never look the same.

“I know I’m not the only person with this problem. There are many more pigs. People in Steiglitz have had their paddocks ripped up as well.”

Ms Phillips said the pig problem isn’t just threatening the health of the native ecosystem, but her “whole way of life,” and the lives of others in the community.

“The damage is in my face from the moment I get up,” she said. “I walk out my door, and it’s there.

“I don’t think that I ever want to be standing in front of a boar without a gun, either. It’s ruining people’s livelihoods out in the farming land.”

Neighbour, Lynne Hillier, said the problem is terrifying the town.

“I would like them all to be eradicated,” Ms Hillier said. “Not just lowering numbers, but getting rid of them, and it needs to be done responsibly.

“We know they’re a problem in the national park, that there’s damage to the water levy, and that they’re also a problem in Dereel.

“Parks Victoria has been doing some deer eradication, but it’s the pigs that are the problem. They’re really dangerous.”

Ms Phillips would like to see all community stakeholders brought together to come up with a “proper regional plan” to solve the feral pig problem.

“It has to be an effort by all organisations in the region for everybody’s good, not least the environment,” she said. “It needs to be properly financed.”

Ms Hillier said she encourages other Shire residents who are affected to speak up, and alert the municipality, in the hopes they can initially put their heads together at a grassroots level, and move to progress the issue.