The Dog Fence

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I’m tracking the Dog Fence from above in the front passenger seat of a Cessna 206[1]. We took off in the tiny plane a couple of hours ago from the sandy airstrip that services the Wilpena Pound Resort in South Australia. From up here, the fence looks like a hairline fracture as it traces a path over dunes, up breakaways and across stony downs before spearing away into the far distance towards rust-hued gibber plains. For graziers, this fine silver line represents the lifeblood of their industry.

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At 5600 km, the Dog Fence is the longest barrier fence in the world. Built to keep dingoes out of grazing lands, its construction began in 1946 and was completed during the 1950s, when disparate existing fences were joined up. It’s a wire-and-wood structure separating eastern Australia’s sheep country, inside the fence, from the north and west of the continent, which is outside the fence.

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It was constructed during a postwar era when monoculture farming operations were expanding globally and agricultural production was intensifying. Widespread use of pesticides and other pest controls were turning otherwise marginal country into productive agricultural land, providing cost-effective farming but with little understanding of the environmental consequences. The term Dog Fence is commonly used to refer to the structure, but the conditions are far too extreme for domestic or feral dogs.

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Maintenance of the fence is a tri-state project involving New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland. It costs about $10 million in upkeep each year, funded by state and local governments, and a fence tax paid by graziers. The entire bill is picked up by various governments in relief packages whenever an environmental disaster impacts the region. Teams of fence maintenance officers and workers and a battalion of heavy machinery keep the fence intact.

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Small mammals (less than 7kg) thrive in areas where dingoes are present and, conversely, numbers of large herbivores explode where there are none or few. “It’s never a straightforward process,” Mike says. “Where there are dingoes, there are more small mammals and this includes rabbits, perhaps because there are fewer foxes.” Where there’s an overabundance of foxes, goats, cats and kangaroos inside the fenceline, however, some ecologists argue the reintroduction of the dingo would benefit the environment, enabling grasslands to regenerate and promoting biodiversity.

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Research into eliminating the Dog Fence and moving the stock protection zone further south could provide a sound economic alternative for the region while allowing marginal grazing lands to regenerate. The fence certainly protects sheep and the wider pastoral industry from dingoes. But it also presents a hazard to native terrestrial wildlife and disrupts ecosystems. Entrapment in the wires affects marsupials, birds, bats and reptiles, and fence hanging is a common threat, particularly to kangaroos.

[1] Cessna – Small plane