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Exclusion Fencing Recovery program reaches milestone

ABC Western Queensland

Teams of contractors have been out across the west fixing wild dog exclusion fences that were flattened in floods last year.

Morgan Gronold, CEO of the Remote Area and Planning Development Board (RAPAD), said 950 kilometres of damage had been reported but he suspects there’s still more.

“Part of the issue we’ve got is that people always think the next-door neighbour or someone else has it worse off than them, so they don’t pick the phone up,” he said.

“We just encourage [producers], whether you’ve got one kilometre or 100, to give us a ring and we’ll get down there and get your application sorted.”

Mr Gronold said staff had visited 40 properties in the central west so far, with 12 council areas eligible.

The Department of Primary Industries would like “expressions of interests” for the up to $500,000 in fencing support for producers to be submitted by the end of this month to service providers, RAPAD or Quilpie Shire Council.

But Mr Gronold said RAPAD could still support producers after that date, but he wanted the money “out the door” by March next year.

“If you’ve got an application underway, that’s fine, if you haven’t gotten around to it yet, that’s fine … just give us a ring and we’ll get our staff down there as soon as possible.”

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