Victoria’s Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) has announced a large-scale 1080 ground baiting program targeting dingoes and wild dogs across eastern Victoria, running from 1 March to 1 July 2026. While SSAA Victoria recognises that predator control plays an important role in protecting livestock and supporting conservation outcomes, the timing, duration and scale of this program raises serious concerns for hunters – particularly those who hunt with hounds and those who use gundogs and hunting dogs in the field.
The program covers a vast area across the Gippsland and Hume regions, including State Forests that are among Victoria’s premier hound hunting destinations. The use of compound 1080, a restricted Schedule 7 poison with no known antidote, means that any hunter bringing dogs into affected areas during the baiting period faces potentially lethal consequences for their animals. In practical terms, this effectively closes large areas of prime hunting country to hound hunters and to deer hunters who rely on gundogs for the entire opening phase of the season.
The hound hunting season in Victoria opens on 1 April. The baiting program will already have been running for a month by then, and baiting continues until 1 July, covering the first three months of the season in their entirety. For many dedicated hound hunters, the opening months are among the most anticipated and productive of the year, with dogs working well in the cooler autumn conditions. To have that access effectively removed across significant stretches of State Forest, with no apparent consultation or mitigation strategy, is a serious blow to the community.
A stark contrast with 2020
What makes the current situation particularly frustrating is that there is a clear and well-established precedent for getting this balance right.
In 2020, SSAA Victoria praised a fox baiting program undertaken in the Colquhoun and Kenny State Forests as a model of what collaborative land management can look like. That program – part of the Southern Ark biodiversity project – was developed in genuine consultation with local hound hunters. Rather than running toxic baits throughout the hunting season, land managers adopted a targeted approach: a nine-week free-feeding period with unpoisoned baits to attract foxes, followed by a single, intensive 10-day poison baiting window in early October – late in the season, when hunting activity with hounds was naturally winding down.
Warning signs were placed on all vehicle access tracks, and when the 10-day period concluded on 14 October, toxic baits were promptly removed. Hunters were asked to stay out of the area for just 10 days. The result was a program that achieved its environmental objectives without unnecessarily restricting hunters for months on end.
SSAA Victoria described that approach at the time as “a huge improvement on previous programs” and noted that it demonstrated how “objectives of land managers and hunters can both be met with cooperation and good will.” The Association called for similar approaches to be adopted across other areas once the program was evaluated.
That was five years ago. The current program suggests those lessons have not been carried forward.
Animal welfare and amenity must be weighed in the balance
SSAA Victoria does not oppose wildlife and predator management. We understand that dingo and wild dog predation causes real harm to livestock and to native fauna, and we support evidence-based programs to address it. But the impact on amenity and animal welfare must be weighed against those benefits, and the current program falls short of that standard.
The loss of a hunting dog to 1080 poisoning is not just an economic loss, it is a profound personal loss for hunters who form deep bonds with their working animals over years of training and time in the field. The risk is real, the consequences are irreversible, and it is entirely reasonable to expect that baiting programs on public land will be designed to minimise that risk wherever possible.
The 2020 program showed it can be done. A short, intense window of toxic baiting, scheduled at the tail end of the season and preceded by appropriate notification, can deliver effective pest control without shutting hunters out for months. The current program, which runs across the full opening three months of the hound hunting season and spans prime State Forest, does not reflect that same thoughtful approach.
SSAA Victoria calls on DEECA to engage with hound hunters and dog-using hunters as a matter of urgency, and to explore whether the current program can be modified to reduce its impact, consistent with the model that worked so well in 2020. The minimisation of negative impacts on hunters should remain a goal of all pest animal control programs on public land.
Hunters and dog owners in affected areas are urged to check the DEECA interactive baiting notification map before entering State Forests with dogs during the baiting period, and to follow all precautionary guidance regarding the presence of 1080 baits and poisoned carcasses.
For more information on the baiting locations, visit the Agriculture Victoria baiting notifications page
