Pastoral Properties Research Articles

Environmental and Colonial Histories: Art, Memoir and Gardens in the Flinders Ranges, South Australia

ABSTRACT This article is concerned with a pressing question of the 21st century: how do we negotiate places with complex colonial pasts? In the Mid North of South Australia, rugged mountain ranges rise up from stony plains. Adnyamathanha-speaking people have lived here and maintained connections to Country for tens of thousands of years. In the late 1920s, artist Hans Heysen travelled to the area known as the Flinders Ranges and stayed at Aroona, an outstation on a pastoral property, painting landscapes of a dry, uninhabited place. At the same time, a memoir of colonial settler J. F. Howard was printed that openly described attempts at dispossession of Aboriginal people for pastoral interests. With a focus on gardens and food in representations of Flinders Ranges landscapes, this article revisits old material with new concerns, arguing that the intersection of environmental and colonial histories offers productive territory for grappling with complex pasts.

James Wigley and the Strelley Mob: Social Realist Painting in an Aboriginal Community

ABSTRACT James Wigley has been historicised by Australian art scholars as a social realist, but the focus of his work through the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s differed from others who were a part of this art movement. During this time, he returned again and again to join the “strike mob” who had walked off pastoral stations in the Pilbara in 1946 and become independent by mining and purchasing their own pastoral properties. The organiser of the strikers, Don McLeod, invited Wigley to help the strikers with building boats to gather pearl shell, and later to run a printing press at the school in the new settlement of Strelley, on one of their pastoral leases. During his time with the strikes, Wigley drew and painted; he would send work to Melbourne and return there to exhibit work about the Pilbara and the people who lived there. He also illustrated the schoolbooks he was printing for the Strelley Literature Centre in the late 1970s. This article argues that this significant body of work places Wigley alongside other Australian artists who spent substantial time in remote Aboriginal communities, and whose experiences shaped their art.

Diet and impacts of non-native fallow deer (Dama dama) on pastoral properties during severe drought

Context There is concern about potential competition between non-native fallow deer (Dama dama) and livestock for food, particularly during times of low rainfall when pasture is scarce. Aims We aimed to estimate the extent to which a high-density fallow deer population (~37 deer per km2) competed with livestock for food during a severe drought on pastoral properties on the Liverpool Plains, New South Wales, Australia. Methods We collected rumen contents from 125 fallow deer shot from helicopters during control operations in June and August 2018, and used microhistology to quantify their diets. We then used the diet data to adjust published estimates of stock unit equivalence from farmed fallow deer. Fallow deer sex and age class abundances and stock unit equivalences were multiplied to estimate the grazing pressure of the fallow deer population pre- and post-control relative to recommended sheep and cattle stocking rates. Finally, we estimated density–impact relationships for fallow deer. Key results Fallow deer diet was dominated by monocots (primarily grasses), but some individuals consumed large amounts of dicots (commonly Eucalyptus). Fallow deer were grazers to intermediate mixed feeders. Fallow deer dry-sheep equivalents (DSEs, based on a 50-kg merino wether) varied from 1.01 (juveniles) to 1.85 (adult females and adult males). Assuming complete diet overlap, the pre-control fallow deer population was equivalent to approximately 60.3 DSEs per km2 and reduced the potential stocking rate of domestic livestock by 50.2%. Discounting the fallow deer DSEs by the amount of browse in the diet resulted in a pre-control population of 45.7 DSEs per km2. The helicopter-based shooting reduced the fallow deer population by 26%, increasing the stocking rate in natural pasture by 22.0% (complete overlap) or 13.8% (discounting for browse). Conclusions When food is limiting, fallow deer at high density can exert strong competitive pressure on livestock, reducing carrying capacity. Browsing, including on Eucalyptus, likely helped fallow deer to persist at high densities during the severe drought of 2018, when properties had destocked. Implications Helicopter-based shooting reduced the competitive effects of fallow deer on livestock in our study area to only a small extent, but more intensive shooting would have led to a greater reduction. The helicopter-based shooting of deer was received positively by landholders at a time of severe stress, suggesting that deer control in agricultural areas can have other important benefits.

Evaluating the effectiveness of a feral cat control operation using camera traps

Feral cats (Felis catus) have a negative impact on native biodiversity in New Zealand. As such, their populations require careful management and monitoring of the effectiveness of these management operations. We used camera traps to assess (1) effectiveness of an intensive cat control operation, and (2) the level of reinvasion six months later. Cat abundance was estimated on a pastoral property in Hawke’s Bay, North Island, New Zealand, subject to cat control using trapping and shooting.

Potential effects of arid shrubland degradation on habitat suitability for a declining arid zone bird, the Chestnut‐rumped Thornbill (Acanthiza uropygialis)

AbstractAustralia's arid shrublands have been impacted by a variety of threatening processes since European settlement, and changes to ecosystem structure and function have been observed at multiple levels. The lack of recruitment and regeneration of the perennial shrub and tree layer in these communities has implications for many shrubland birds, including species of conservation concern such as the Chestnut‐rumped Thornbill (Acanthiza uropygialis: Acanthizidae). We documented foraging behaviour and habitat selection of the Chestnut‐rumped Thornbill at the Arid Recovery Reserve in South Australia and surveyed vegetation characteristics within the Reserve and in an adjacent pastoral property. We found that Chestnut‐rumped Thornbills preferentially use certain plant species: Callitris glaucophylla, Acacia aneura, Acacia ligulata and Acacia tetragonophylla, and that these species were significantly less abundant at our study sites outside the Reserve than inside. Major differences in the structure and composition of the vegetation inside and outside the Reserve suggest that changes in habitat structure and composition occurring in the broader landscape (outside the fenced area) decrease the suitability of arid shrubland habitat for the Chestnut‐rumped Thornbill and may contribute to their absence in unprotected areas. Our study indicates that deterioration of the perennial shrub layer could have significant consequences for the persistence of the Chestnut‐rumped Thornbill in arid rangelands. Our findings highlight the importance of rangeland management and restoration of Australia's arid shrublands in preventing declines of the Chestnut‐rumped Thornbill and other insectivorous birds.

Can encroached rangelands enhance carbon sequestration in the African Savannah?

Climate change and bush encroachment pose huge challenges to rangeland management in Namibia. These challenges require a holistic management approach that ensures consistent and optimum forage productivity and sustainability. Mechanical and chemical control methods are the most used techniques in controlling woody encroaching species to improve pastoral properties in the Namibian savannas. However, there is very little information regarding the management options that concurrently solve climate change and bush encroachment problems. This study compares the effects of different bush encroachment control methods -chemical control and mechanical control using a restoration thinning strategy and chemical aftercare- on carbon stocks, carbon sequestration and social cost of carbon on two farms in the Otjozondjupa region of Namibia. Allometric equations were evaluated and used to estimate carbon stocks. Carbon sequestration was estimated from the carbon stocks using the ratio of atomic masses of C and CO2 while the social cost was assumed at the published rate of $56.00 per ton of carbon. Results show that AGB estimates from the species and country-specific allometric equation for Senegalia mellifera (R2 0.86; se 0.063), Dichrostachys cinerea (R2 = 0.77; se = 0.076), Senegalia fleckii (R2 =0.83; se = 0.148), Senegalia erubescens (R2 = 0.81; se = 0.519) and Vachellia reficiens (R2 =0.81; se =0.519) were highly correlated to the measured ABG. Therefore, the species and country-specific allometric equations are good predictors of AGB in the study site. The generic equation Y = Exp [-2.187+0.916ln(X2 x WD x H)] used to estimate AGB for Acacia erioloba, Grewia flavescens, Grewia bicolar was moderately strong ranging from R2 = 0.46 to R2 = 0.55. The generic allometric equation overestimated the ABG for Acacia erioloba by 22.4% and underestimated ABG for Grewia bicolar by 32.3% and 19.8%, respectively. Results indicate a significant difference between the mechanical and chemical control methods in both carbon stocks and carbon sequestration; p = < 0.001 and p = < 0.001, respectively. The carbon sequestration for the control plot was 331 t/ha, which is 58% and 61% higher than the carbon sequestered in the mechanically and chemically treated plots, respectively. The mechanically treated plots sequestered 137.95 C, 7.5% more carbon dioxide than the chemically treated plots. The net value of carbon sequestration was highest in the control treatment (US$18,536.68), followed by mechanically treated plots (US$7,725.49), which is 7% higher than chemically treated plots (US$7,147.98). The mechanical control method - restoration thinning and chemical aftercare- performs better in climate mitigation based on carbon sequestration. However, climate change and rangeland management should consider the high contribution of woody encroached areas to carbon sequestration. Our findings point to a C sequestration-based approach to making rangeland management decisions, an approach valuable in holistic climate change mitigation and forage improvement.

Breaking the wildfire cycle: progressive fire management can shift fire regimes and improve ecosystem condition. A case study from a large conservation reserve in northern Australia

Extensive late dry season fires in northern Australia have long been considered detrimental to biodiversity conservation, pastoral production and other cultural and landscape values. Fire management programs in these landscapes typically aim to shift the fire regime from wildfires occurring predominately in the late dry season (LDS), when they tend to be extensive and destructive, to prescribed burns in the early dry season (EDS), when fires are generally smaller and less intensive. The intent is to create heterogeneity in vegetation age classes, reduce the scale of LDS fires and, in doing so, retain long-unburnt vegetation, a critical asset for biodiversity in a flammable landscape. Boodjamulla National Park, in Queensland’s Gulf Country, experienced a cycle of large LDS wildfires every 5 years for most of its history as a pastoral property and park until a progressive EDS burning program was introduced. Although there is limited information for defining the ideal fire regime for spinifex (Triodia spp.) rangelands, this program has improved a range of spatial metrics which the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) believes can only benefit biodiversity; these include decreased annual and LDS area burnt; a greater number of small burnt patches; shorter distances between recently burnt and long-unburnt spinifex; and, consequently, a greater area of long-unburnt spinifex embedded in the mosaic across the landscape. There has been an improvement in the ecological parameters of these landscapes, as well as the protection and persistence of fire-sensitive vegetation communities and species, because of the burn program.

A most enigmatic mouse: additional information on collection of blue-grey mouse (

Australia has suffered more modern mammal extinctions than any nation. Among the list of extinct species is the blue-grey mouse (Pseudomys glaucus), a rodent known from just three specimens (two from southern Queensland and one from northern New South Wales). We investigated circumstances of collection for the three specimens referred to this species to better illuminate optimal habitats and climatic conditions for continuing rediscovery efforts. No additional information could be found on two specimens from southern Queensland sent to the Natural History Museum, London. However, we recorded a first-hand account of how the northern New South Wales specimen was collected and have established that the collection year was 1956. We also obtained a copy of correspondence from Ellis Le G. Troughton thanking the collector for the contribution. The northern New South Wales specimen was from a pastoral property formerly dominated by woodland vegetation communities on alluvial soils. It was captured during a mouse plague following consecutive seasons of above average rainfall. Pseudomys glaucus is likely already extinct, but our results help better direct any future survey efforts. Surveys should be targeted in woodland communities on alluvial floodplains in the Darling Riverine Plains bioregion, following periods of above average rainfall conducive to the irruption of rodent populations.

Options and rationale for regional property‐based kangaroo production

SummaryThe larger kangaroos (Macropus giganteus, M. fuliginosus and Osphranter rufus) are widely distributed and have a national population which fluctuates in response to changes in grass growth and trends to 40 million. Most are outside parks and reserves and, on pastoral properties, particularly on the rangelands of southern Australia. High numbers compromise regenerative agriculture, pasture conservation, revegetation and stewardship programmes, and can have significant financial impacts on landholders by lowering livestock production and damaging sustainability. Some smaller macropods, wallabies and pademelons, also have a similar effect, especially in Tasmania and on other smaller Australian Islands where foxes are absent. Paradoxically, kangaroos have a wide range of potentially valuable production attributes and are unique, which should be a global comparative advantage. The kangaroo industry is established with a small domestic and international market, although demand has been falling in recent years. Non‐commercial culling is rising, which results in millions of carcasses being wasted and left to decompose in the field. Indigenous communities abhor such waste and its cultural implications. A stronger kangaroo industry would be a better solution to managing overabundant kangaroos than pest culling and exclusion fences. Because kangaroos move from property to property, populations need to be managed on a regional basis through ‘regional property‐based kangaroo production’. A form of proprietorship over this mobile resource would encourage landholders to play a role in creating greater demand for kangaroo products. They would have an incentive to raise the value of kangaroos. Through innovative harvesting, they could deliver high‐quality, environmentally branded, accurately described, gourmet, differentiated products integrated with other livestock industries. They could establish cooperatives and embark on promoting regional kangaroo products. Policy improvements are needed to achieve these production systems. Doing so would diversify their enterprises, convert a liability already on their properties into an asset, create employment, enhance rural economic resilience, and improve animal welfare and conservation outcomes while earning them carbon credits. These opportunities become even more profound as climate change progresses.

From loop-holes to labour: Aboriginal connections to Calperum and Chowilla pastoral stations, South Australia

ABSTRACT This paper examines Aboriginal connections to pastoral properties on the western central Murray River, with a focus on Calperum and Chowilla Stations. Station histories are presented, oral histories are explored and archaeological sites and material culture from the period are considered. The range of histories, interactions and “zones of encounter” are then compared to relevant interpretive models in order to highlight some of the myriad complexities relating to invasion, colonisation and pastoralism. In particular, we explore a range of themes, including conflict/violence, place names, traditional activities, rations, labour and more to demonstrate Aboriginal engagements and connection to Country throughout the pastoral era, even during times of significant duress – bringing to the fore otherwise “anonymised”, “hidden” and “contested” narratives. This research was undertaken in collaboration with the River Murray and Mallee Aboriginal Corporation (RMMAC).

Converting rangelands to reserves: Small mammal and reptile responses 24 years after domestic livestock grazing removal

AbstractWith one million species threatened with extinction and more than a third of terrestrial Earth now devoted to crop or livestock production, many conservation organisations are acquiring land, destocking and converting them to national parks or conservation reserves. When pastoral properties are acquired, destocking is often the first management action. Species responses to destocking are varied and largely associated with changes in ground vegetation complexity. However, studies over short timeframes may fail to capture the often slow and episodic recovery post‐destocking, particularly in arid and semi‐arid ecosystems. In this study, we examined the response of small mammals and reptiles between 6 and 24 years since destocking in mallee (Eucalytpussp.) andCasuarinavegetation communities in semi‐arid Australia. As casuarina sites were closer to water than mallee, they were subject to higher domestic livestock grazing intensity, and higher grazing pressure from invasive goats and native kangaroos after livestock were removed. We related faunal abundance and diversity to time‐since‐destocking, fractional cover, rainfall and temperature and described compositional dynamics. We found that the vegetation types had distinct fauna communities and unique recovery trajectories. In mallee, reptile abundance and diversity increased with time‐since‐destocking but did not change in casuarina. Small mammal response to time‐since‐destocking was non‐linear and strongly influenced by rainfall. Overall, the mallee community showed signs of recovery, but recovery was less evident in the more degraded casuarina. We highlight that destocking ex‐pastoral properties is rarely a restoration ‘quick‐fix’ and land managers must deal with a complex legacy of impacts, when converting pastoral land to conservation reserves.

Species loss and decline among birds of coastal Central Queensland over 130 years

Many longitudinal studies of regional avifaunas have been conducted in Australia, but the majority concern temperate inland regions. We examined changes in the avifauna of the Rockhampton region (10 500 km2) in subtropical, coastal Central Queensland, Australia, over 130 years, comparing accounts from 1888, 1925 and 1973–1974 with survey data from 2000 to 2019. Of the 307 confirmed species recorded until 1975, 11 resident species have since disappeared from the region, while another 11 species appear to have declined. This is the highest number of extinct bird species reported to date in a region larger than 1000 km2, although the annual extinction rate is surpassed by that of Coomooboolaroo, a pastoral property of 454 km2 only 100 km away, which lost 18 species over a similar period. Eleven (50%) of the 22 extirpated or declining species forage primarily on the ground, and 12 (55%) are primarily insectivorous. Eucalypt woodland is the major habitat of 11 species (50%), while another five (23%) are associated with rainforests. Species loss and decline coincided with habitat loss: 63% of the eucalypt woodland and 70% of the rainforest have been cleared since Europeans settled in the region. Livestock overgrazing probably played a role in the extirpation of four species of finches. The decline of at least 11 species since 1975 coincided with three consecutive decades of low rainfall, and an ongoing increase in ambient temperature.

Female reproductive suppression in an Australian arid zone rodent, the spinifex hopping mouse

AbstractThe spinifex hopping mouse (Notomys alexis) is an Australian arid zone rodent that undergoes boom and bust population cycles in its natural environment. Most populations studied to date have been sympatric with exotic predators and introduced herbivores, likely affecting their population dynamics. Therefore, it is unclear whether high‐density populations of hopping mice are regulated by purely extrinsic factors or whether intrinsic factors are also at play. We hypothesized that reproductive suppression of female N. alexis may occur in high‐density populations as has been observed in some other rodent species. Reproductive condition of adult female N. alexis was compared between a high‐density population within the Arid Recovery reserve, where exotic predators and introduced herbivores are excluded, and a low‐density population on adjacent pastoral properties (no exclusions). Trap success was 10 times higher inside the reserve than at pastoral sites, and no adult females were observed breeding in the reserve population, despite 26 % of females at pastoral sites recorded breeding. Our results indicate that adult female N. alexis in the high‐density reserve population were reproductively suppressed, but the similar sex ratios in both populations and the high female body mass and body condition in the reserve indicated that this was not due to demographic differences between the two populations or food scarcity. Our study indicates that the ‘busts’ observed in arid zone rodent populations may be amplified due to the presence of exotic predators and/or grazing by introduced herbivores. We contend that prior to the introduction of exotic predators and introduced herbivores in Australia, the arid zone rodent N. alexis would likely have been more abundant and intrinsic population regulation through female reproductive suppression may have played a larger role in population regulation.

Spatiotemporal dynamics of wild herbivore species richness and occupancy across a savannah rangeland: Implications for conservation

Private lands are critical for maintaining biodiversity beyond protected areas. Across Kenyan rangelands, wild herbivores frequently coexist with people and their livestock. Human population and livestock numbers are projected to increase dramatically over the coming decades. Therefore, a better understanding of wildlife-livestock interactions and their consequences for biodiversity conservation on private lands is needed. We used a Bayesian hierarchical, multi-species and multi-year occupancy model on aerial survey data of 15 wild-herbivore species, spanning 15 years (2001–2016) to investigate a) spatiotemporal trends in species occurrence and richness across a mosaic of properties with different land uses in Laikipia County, central Kenya; and b) the effects of distance to water, vegetation and livestock relative abundance on species occurrence and richness. Although mean herbivore species richness varied little over time, we observed high spatial variation in species occurrence across Laikipia, mainly driven by negative effects of high livestock relative abundance. As expected, ‘wildlife friendly’ properties had higher herbivore species richness than other areas. However, high variability suggests that some pastoral properties support rich herbivore communities. The area occupied by five species with global conservation concerns (reticulated giraffe, Grevy's zebra, Beisa Oryx, Defassa waterbuck and gerenuk) and for which Laikipia County is one of the last refuges was <50% across years. We conclude that ‘wildlife friendly’ properties remain crucial for conservation, although some pastoralist areas offer suitable habitats for wild herbivores. Effective management of stocking rates is critical for maintaining ecosystems able to sustain livestock and wildlife on private lands, ensuring protection for endangered species.

Tax Accounting for Livestock: Mother or Meat/Capital or Revenue?

Australia is experiencing cataclysmic weather events largely due to rising atmospheric temperatures caused by greenhouse gas emissions – climate change. A consequence of droughts, floods, fires, tempests and family disasters is the sale or loss of valuable stud stock. In normal trading circumstances these animals would not be sold as trading stock. However the sale of pastoral properties can be beyond the will of the owners for a raft of reasons. Presently the receipts from the sale of ALL animals sold as part of a primary production business are considered to be income according to ordinary concepts by the Australia Taxation Office (ATO) and taxed at ordinary income tax rates. This paper considers the value of animals included in the sale of rural properties in Australia. It argues that the provisions of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (ITAA 1997) are being misinterpreted by tax administrators and tax professionals. Sections 70-10, 995 ITAA 1997 provide that livestock are trading stock – a revenue item. However s 385-100 refers to breeding stock – a capital item. Many practitioners may be interpreting ss 70-10, 995 as applying to ALL livestock. Considering the sale ALL animals traded on the sale of a pastoral lease or farm as revenue denies vendors of concessions permitted under the capital gains tax provisions. This paper considers the income and capital gains tax implications on the sale of animals in conjunction with the sale of pastoral and farming properties in Australia. The distinction between classifying expenditure by an enterprise to be on items of a capital or a revenue nature has long been argued. Generally, in accounting terms, expenditure is considered to be of a capital nature if the benefit of the purchased asset is applied to more than one accounting period.

Comparison of biodiversity and ground cover between a commercial rotationally grazed property and an adjacent nature reserve in semi‐arid rangeland

AbstractContinuous livestock grazing can have negative effects on biodiversity and landscape function in arid and semi‐arid rangelands. Alternative grazing management practices, such as rotational grazing, may be a viable option for broad‐scale biodiversity conservation and sustainable pastoral management. This study compared ground cover, plant species composition and floristic and functional diversity along gradients of grazing intensity between a pastoral property rotationally grazed by goats and an adjacent nature reserve (ungrazed by commercial livestock) in semi‐arid south‐eastern Australia. Understorey plant species composition differed significantly between the rotationally grazed property and the nature reserve, with a greater proportion and frequency of palatable species recorded in the nature reserve. Understorey plant species richness, diversity, functional biodiversity measures and ground cover declined with increasing grazing pressure close to water points under commercial rotational grazing management. However, at a whole‐paddock scale, there were few differences in plant biodiversity and ground cover between the rotationally grazed property and the nature reserve, despite differences in overall plant species composition. Flexible, adaptive, rotational grazing should be investigated further for its potential to achieve both socio‐economic and biodiversity conservation outcomes in semi‐arid rangelands to complement existing conservation reserves.

Indigenous Self-determination Under Settler Colonial Capitalism: Northern Territory Cattle Communities 1968–96

Using the papers of the Gibb Committee on the future of Aboriginal communities on pastoral properties in the Northern Territory (1970–72), this article contributes both theoretically and empirically to the history of self-determination policy. It reveals non-Aboriginal authorities’ thinking at a crucial moment in the history of the governing of remote Aboriginal Australians: the dissolution of the ‘pastoral-feudal’ order under the impact of ‘equal wages’ and access to cash social security. The article argues that the state and pastoralists had to consider two modalities of Aboriginal empowerment: as individual citizen-workers whose labour time had now to be valued as a commodity; and as ‘communities’ aspiring to autonomy from the authority of pastoralists. The article concludes by arguing that the settler colonial state's imperatives are both ‘capitalist’ and ‘custodial’.

Comparative Study of Pastoral Property Regimes in Africa Offers No Support for Economic Defensibility Model

The economic defensibility model explains human territoriality by considering the costs and benefits of defending resources that vary in density and predictability. We conducted a comparative study...

Scottish Networks and their Buildings in Van Diemen’s Land and Tasmania

In the 1820s an increasing number of Scottish settlers arrived in the Colony of Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania, Australia) to take up government land grants. At the time, they were the second largest ethnic group, after the English, and through their numbers, enterprise (typically pastoralism and trading), land ownership, and building helped shape the colonisation and Europeanisation of the island. This article outlines their influence in the built environment and proceeds to present portraits of three related Scottish-Vandemonian pastoral properties. Employing personal records and correspondence it focuses upon the motivations, ambitions, and agency of Scottish networks (familial, social and entrepreneurial) as reflected in the architecture and building of their mansions. Those networks were local, regional, and global, with active participants in Scotland, and were instrumental in the development of the mansions. The designs for these mansions (often unattributed), along with their construction, also played a role in the building of these networks. Employing the lens offered by the experience of Scottish settlers, the paper considers the interplay of empire, regions, settler networks, and buildings in Van Diemen’s Land in the first half of the nineteenth century.

Fate of dried meat baits aimed at wild dog (Canis familiaris) control

Context Livestock predation is a worldwide phenomenon, causing financial losses and emotional strain on producers. Wild dogs (Canis familiaris) cause millions of dollars of damage to cattle, sheep and goat production in Australia every year, and despite on-going control (baiting, trapping, shooting, and fencing), they remain a significant problem for livestock producers across many pastoral and agricultural regions of Australia. Aims We aimed to quantify the uptake of dried meat baits by wild dogs and determine whether an olfactory lure (fish oil) could increase uptake. Methods Camera traps and sand pads were used to monitor bait uptake for three baiting events on two pastoral properties in the southern rangelands of Western Australia in 2016 and 2017. Key results Of the 337 monitored baits with a known outcome, young wild dogs (&lt;8 months old) removed only four, three of which were covered in a fish-oil lure. In warmer months, baits were largely consumed by varanids, and in cooler months, when baits were taken it was predominantly by corvids. Varanids and corvids took more baits than expected on the basis of activity indices. Kangaroos, feral cats and wild dogs consumed significantly fewer baits than expected from their activity on camera. Conclusions We have no evidence that adult wild dogs removed baits, despite many opportunities to do so (wild dogs passing cameras), and fewer wild dogs took baits than expected on the basis of activity events seen on camera. Olfactory lures may have the potential to increase bait uptake by naïve individuals (i.e. young dogs), but the sample size was small. Implications Increasing the number of baiting events per year, trialling novel baits, and baiting during low non-target activity are some of the recommended methods that may increase bait persistence and uptake by wild dogs.