Kangaroo partnership coordinator announced

Sevenseas Creative, with Georgina Shirley as the Kangaroo Partnership Coordinator, has been announced as the successful independent facilitator for the Optimising Kangaroo Management in South Australia project starting on Monday 15 November 2021.

Georgina has a Bachelor of Environmental Management, is from an agricultural background and has a professional history in communications, engagement, community development and facilitation. The project will also benefit from the extensive history and success of Sevenseas Creatives Directors Andrea Broadfoot and Jack Ritchie who bring a wealth of experience in stakeholder engagement and community campaigns around complex issues.

“We are really pleased to be on the team to support this collective initiative and strategic focus on kangaroo management collaboration for South Australia,” Ms Broadfoot said.

“Georgina Shirley is the lead for our team and brings energy, insight, skills, knowledge and technical expertise to the project. We look forward to working with all of the project partners.”

The need for the project stemmed from a massive kangaroo die-off across the region during recent drought years, following record kangaroo populations across the SA Arid Lands and neighbouring regions in 2017. The record number of kangaroos contributed heavily to grazing pressure on native plant species at a time when properties had largely destocked and the landscape couldn’t cope with the large numbers.

The Optimising Kangaroo Management in South Australia project will deliver:

 Co-ordinated planning and information sharing between multiple sectors and disciplines;

 On-ground trials and research that aims to enable the management of kangaroos as a valuable resource and reduce economic, environmental, cultural, social and animal welfare impacts; and

 New networks that explore learning from other states and jurisdictions, supporting scientific data and evidence-based models of success.

With a coordinator appointed the project, led by the SA Arid Lands Landscape Board will now instigate the development of a formal partnership model with a range of stakeholders including the kangaroo industry, PIRSA, Department for Environment and Water, environmental NGOs, Traditional Owners, Livestock SA and landholders, including pastoralists.

In alignment with the project is the development of the Agriculture Kangaroo Taskforce, a recent initiative led by PIRSA. It aims to ensure all stakeholders can be part of potential solutions to the overabundance of kangaroos and the market, social, cultural and environmental considerations in managing them.

Funded by the Landscape Priorities Fund, Optimising kangaroo management in South Australia – a partnership approach to improving landscape and economic resilience includes partnership with Alinytjara Wiluṟara, Eyre Peninsula, Northern and Yorke, and Murraylands and Riverland landscape boards, Greening Australia, Bush Heritage Australia, Conservation Management, Department for Environment and Water, Western Local Land Services (NSW), SA Professional Field Processor Association, Ecological Horizons, Livestock SA, Nature Foundation SA, Conservation Council, and the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation.

The two-year, $350,000 project aims to find the common ground between environmental, economic, social and cultural interests that provide a basis for collaboration and shared responsibility for kangaroo management.