Feral Pigs

The Hon. I. PNEVMATIKOS (14:29): My question is to the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development. Will the minister update the chamber on a recent visit to Kangaroo Island to celebrate the achievements of PIRSA's Kangaroo Island feral pig eradication project?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (14:29): I thank the honourable member for her question. I am particularly delighted to be able to speak today because we have had an exciting development within the last 24 hours.

But, first of all, I have mentioned previously that during the 2019-20 bushfires on Kangaroo Island much of the feral pig population was destroyed. An estimated amount of up to 10,000 feral pigs occupied the island prior to those bushfires. Since those fires, of course, a lot were destroyed and that created a real opportunity to completely eradicate the pest from Kangaroo Island, hopefully once and for all.

We know that feral pigs cause around $1 million of damage every year in terms of economic losses to the agricultural industry on Kangaroo Island, and also have very significant negative impacts on the environment. Thankfully, these are losses that should no longer be felt on the island.

Funding was allocated under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements and a total of $5½ million was provided over three years to complete the eradication. In addition to that, the state government recently allocated an additional $192,000 in funding to ensure that the program is extended for the next 12 months.

PIRSA, in partnership with the Kangaroo Island Landscape Board, the Department for Environment and Water, Livestock SA, Agriculture Kangaroo Island and several other non-government organisations, have been spending just under $2 million a year on the eradication, so the success of the program is obvious and the savings and results of the eradication will speak for themselves.

Now to the big news: while we know that in total 875 feral pigs have been eradicated, there are now believed to be only two left living in the wild. I am delighted to share with the chamber that my office this morning received notification that last night the eradication team successfully tracked and eradicated what is believed to be the only two remaining sows on the island, and further tests have confirmed that those two sows have never carried piglets. Therefore, we are delighted to be able to anticipate that there are only two boars left on the island and, for obvious reasons, we don't expect any piglets to eventuate.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: I am not biting. Over the next 12 months PIRSA will have staff on the ground to ensure that the eradication is complete and that will include ongoing surveillance. On Friday, I had the opportunity to visit the aerial cull base camp at Gosse on the western side of the island, and to tour the base camp and also look at the helicopters that are used for the cull, along with the thermal equipment that is used to track down the feral pigs.

I would like to thank all of the staff who have been involved in this ongoing work. The success of the program would not have been possible without the dedication of six full-time staff members who have worked so hard to achieve these results. Speaking with these staff on Friday really provided quite an impressive insight into the large amount of work that has gone into ensuring that complete eradication is achieved, along with the enormous level of sophistication, in fact, that is involved with tracking down the feral pigs.

The team has 300 cameras strategically placed across the western part of the island which send an alert to the base camp if a feral pig is sighted, and also what location it is sighted at, which then allows the response team to go out and eradicate the pig at any time of the day. If it is spotted during the evening, thermal equipment is used. Each camera takes 20,000 photos every day, or 833 every hour, which is then fed back to the base camp and allows the team to assess the activity in each area where the cameras are located. Along with the cameras, the helicopter teams have surveyed the entire western part of the island in a grid pattern, twice over, which also gives the team the confidence in the low numbers of feral pigs.

Perhaps one of the most impressive pieces of work being undertaken to ensure eradication is complete is the way the team regularly sample the water streams from various sources around the western part of the island and screen it for feral pig DNA. If feral pig DNA is detected in a particular area, the team will then focus their efforts on that area where the DNA was identified. Because of this high level of detail, leaving no stone unturned, the eradication team has won national awards recognising their efforts.

I would really like to thank Matt Korcz, who is the Kangaroo Island feral pig control coordinator, for his ongoing efforts in this program. I met Matt on a few occasions when I visited the island, and his dedication and professionalism is absolutely clear to anyone who meets him. I thank all the team that has been working on this, and I look forward to being able to update you again, hopefully in the not too distant future, when the final two pigs have been eradicated.