Wednesday, October 17, 2012
A friend of ours has planted oats this year... and hurt his hand. He's very conservationist (being involved in most of the 'greener' projects around. He's a good man) but the reality is he's disappearing under a tide of wallaby (being against the forest margin they have lots of hiding places and lots of lovely grazing). He's put in heroic efforts at fencing - within weeks the wombats dig holes and the wallaby follow. So it's shoot or poison - and a normal year involves more than 1000 - (I gather he's been doing this for half a century, and the numbers just get bigger, it seems.) He can't shoot right now, as his hand is injured, so I went up there last night. The rain got me after an hour - maybe 3/4 of an hour of dark - and I had to bring the rifle out of it. But I had shot 16 wallaby. Here I have to shoot at 70-100 yards, there it was 30. Even I can hit things at thirty yards. So last night I worked until 2 turning 11 of them into food (couldn't in the dark find the others, they were found and buried this morning). Ah. Self-sufficiency. Easy, isn't it? I will say the gutting and skinning are a lot better than before the night started. Nothing like 10 in a row to get even the dumbest practiced. Anyway, tired day, and now I am for bed.
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It's interesting how life works. On the 15th you posted a bit of concern about getting enough wallaby for dog tucker. Now you have a surfeit AND helped a friend in the process.
ReplyDeleteToo right. I wished i had had someone of your expertise here to help him a bit more. But I am getting better at it.
DeleteThe right weapon for your infestation is not allowed for the common folks to own in Oz. If they are that thick a semi AR in .223 would be what I would use. From a stand. A 400m circle of wallaby death.
ReplyDeletehmm. Did you ever play space invaders? This is real life space invaders. You have a 800 yard paddock fence, against the forest. It's not straight, and there are little rises and falls in the land The paddock is maybe 1200 yards wide. The wallaby come out at night, and even with a good light, seeing them 150 yards is a challenge. While you're on the left, they're coming through, just out of the light, all along the fence. And then when you move, they come through behind you. Very soon it's a 3 D game, because they're in the field too, and they move when they hear you coming...
Deleteso how deep do wombat dig? In Japan the wild boar only seem to do 10 cm or so but they are tough on wimpy fences so you see fields surrounded with corrugated iron, rebar grids and the like. I have no idea how much 1 metre high rebar fencing costs but I expect it would stymie most wallaby and wombat if dug in deep enough.
ReplyDeleteI'd guess a rebar fence for that farm would cost about what the rebar for 40 story building would :-(. It's a huge area, and the fence would have to be max 12 cm gaps, and probably at least 2 metres deep. And wombats are more like a cross between badgers and boars - the holes are potentially deep, and they are very strong and stubborn. Wallaby - and wombat - come in many sizes - from hare to 30Kg. The little ones are impossible to keep out, and make the holes bigger for the big ones. Electic hotwire short of the fence will deter NEW animals to an area... but not ones who feed or live there.
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