THE relief John and Rhonda Crawford felt when the Final Grampians National Park Plan was released by Parks Victoria, stating that no dingoes would be reintroduced to the national park, has quickly evaporated.

 After learning a Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into Ecosystem Decline had been tabled on December 2, 2021, recommending the reintroduction of dingoes into any park in Victoria, the Victoria Valley couple have been extremely disappointed.

Moreover, the report has recommended that dingoes be protected with no use of lethal control of pests (no shooting, 1080 baits or trapping) and to cease the fox/wild dog bounty.

Mr and Ms Crawford have made available a new petition in opposition to the recommendations regarding reintroducing dingoes into any park in Victoria.

They are very concerned as there seems to be little public knowledge about the inquiry.

“There has been nothing the paper.” Ms Crawford said.

“The report is 700 pages long and includes recommendations from 11 members of parliament, eight of whom are Labor and Greens and they’re all Melbourne people.

“The Victorian Farmers Federation made a submission to the report against the reintroduction of dingoes but only 20-30 percent of farmers are members of the VFF.”

The new petition said that dingoes would cause devastation to the state's million-dollar livestock and wool industry and would be a threat to tourists (families and children) that visit parks.

It also claimed dingoes would threaten existing smaller native animals.

“We raised over 4300 signatures on our previous Grampians ‘No’ Dingo petition, both online and paper,” Ms Crawford said.

 “We need to spread the word to farmers and regional communities regarding what is planned by the Victorian Government, if the recommendation of this inquiry is accepted by state MPs – in February or March of this year.

“We have started contacting people all around the state to get their help in spreading the word about this very worrying plan.”

The online petition was created on January 16 and can be signed at bit.ly/3qLjImZ.

The wording is slightly different from the original petition created in December 2020; the original was specific to the Grampians National Park.

A paper petition will also be available for signatures at the Hamilton Regional Livestock Exchange (HRLX) on Portland Road.