Major works to refurbish 150km of exclusion fencing coupled with a consistent wild dog baiting program have have paid dividends at Australia's largest sheep station.
Rawlinna Station, owned by Jumbuck Pastoral, is located on the Nullarbor Plain in Western Australia's Goldfields-Esperance region and covers 1,011,714 hectares.
It once ran 65,000 Merino sheep protected by a 400km exclusion fence originally put up in the 1960s.
But over the past decade the fence fell into disrepair, with hundreds of wild dogs having a serious impact on the property's profitability
In 2019, drought and wild dogs had resulted in lamb marking percentages falling to just three per cent and 50,000 sheep shorn.
In 2020, Rawlinna was down to shearing 26,500 head with manager Jimmy Wood estimating 10,000 ewes and lambs valued at $1.5 million lost to predation.
"That definitely put us in the red and was probably one of the biggest losses in a flock anywhere in Australia," he said.
"In the last three years we have accounted for 120 wild dogs (confirmed kills) inside the netting plus an unknown number controlled by baiting."
In 2020 Rawlinna embarked on a fencing project worth more than $1 million to refurbish 150km of the existing 400km dog fence enclosing the station, with plans to complete another 20km of lapping this year on the eastern boundary.
Mr Wood grew up on Rawlinna and said wild dog numbers were low in the 1990s but had exploded.
"In 2018, dog sightings within the station were common and lambings were down to 55 per cent despite coming off the back of a decade of good years and a record start to the season," he said.
"In June 2020 staff walked the eastern and western netting (110km each side) plus 90km of the southern netting and found 60 large holes and 120 smaller holes. You might as well have left the gates open."
A 1.5m high prefabricated fence was clipped on this existing 90km of dog fence originally built in the 1960s.
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Fencing contractor Doug Brown and his team took eight months to complete the project.
Simultaneously, 25km of prefabricated black poly coated lapping was laid on the southern dog fence along with a major fortification of the south-western and south-eastern corners to counteract kangaroo pressure.
Another 35km of hinge joint mesh was used as a lapping to replace the bottom 500mm of the existing dog fence.
In 2021, Rawlinna shore 30,117 sheep for an 860-bale clip with lamb marking almost double of 2020 at 75.9 per cent or 11,778 lambs.
"Getting the wild dogs out has been the single biggest thing that has made Rawlinna viable again," Mr Wood said.
"We are a long way from being a powerhouse, but I will shear 40,000 sheep this year which is a step up from the 30,000 I shore last year, and it will only go up from there.
"In 2020 we were flat out cutting 3kg a sheep but in 2021 fleece weights had doubled to 6.5kg."
National Wild Dog Management Coordinator Greg Mifsud said proper fence maintenance was a key factor in controlling the impacts of wild dogs on sheep production.
"With the expansion of exclusion fencing for vertebrate pest control across the country, the experiences from Rawlinna demonstrate that becoming complacent with fence maintenance and wild dog control outside of fences impacts can come back to bite you even harder than before," Mr Mifsud said.
"Exclusion fencing requires considerable ongoing management to prevent incursions of wild dogs and other pests, and providing ongoing support for coordinated management programs for wild dogs outside of fenced areas is essential to keep wild dog numbers down if there is a break in the fence."
Mr Mifsud said private investment in fence maintenance and installation was an important part of controlling wild dog populations.
"In Queensland for instance, government investment is only a quarter of the actual costs so that's a three to one investment from landholders and their efforts have been very successful," he said.
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