Win: The New South Wales Parliament have launched an Inquiry into dingo management across National Parks.
Dingoes are ecologically vital animals & culturally significant to many cultural custodians. Yet across New South Wales, they are actively killed across public conservation areas like National Parks.
Dingoes are the only native mammals in New South Wales specifically exempt from protections under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016. It’s time this changed.
Join us in calling on the New South Wales Government to end the killing of dingoes in the states national parks.
An ecologically vital animal.
Dingoes are important apex predators in Australia’s natural environment, including in New South Wales. Their presence in the ecosystem works to maintain the balance of native herbivores like macropods, as well as suppress, and in some cases remove, introduced species such as goats, foxes, cats and pigs. Without Dingoes, food web pathways become unstable, and prey species become overabundant. This not only affects native plant communities but also leads to a decrease in available habitat and food for small and medium-sized animals in the environment.
Removing Dingoes from Country is causing an ecological crisis.
A culturally significant animal for Cultural Custodians.
Dingoes are culturally significant to many Traditional Owners across the continent, including in New South Wales. In 2023, a first-of-its-kind National Inaugural First Nations Dingo Forum took place in Cairns, bringing together over 100 First Nations people from 20 different Nations to have their say on current Dingo management. The forum resulted in the writing and signing of the National First Nations Dingo Declaration, which outlines a strong Indigenous perspective on the Dingo and how Traditional Owners wish to see them managed on Country.
The declaration outlines:
“We do not, and have never, approved the killing of Dingoes. Killing Dingoes is killing family. We demand an immediate stop to this ‘management’ across Australia.”
Image: Minyumai head rangers Maitland and Harry Wilson, Upper house Greens MP Sue Higginson and the National First Nations Dingo Declaration
Trapped, shot and poisoned across national parks.
Image: Catriona Marshall
Dingoes are currently classified as 'wild dogs' under New South Wales legislation.
However, recent genetic research analysing more than 195,000 genetic markers confirms that Dingoes are genetically distinct from domestic dogs, and that domestic dogs do not establish wild populations in Australia. Instead, the study found that the wild canines living across the Australian landscape are Dingoes.
Despite this, Dingoes are extensively targeted through 1080 poison baiting, trapping and shooting across public conservation areas, including national parks.
National parks exist to protect biodiversity and conserve native wildlife. The ongoing killing of Dingoes is inconsistent with this purpose. These public conservation areas belong to all Australians, and there is strong public support for protecting Dingoes as a native keystone species rather than continuing widespread lethal control.
Between 2020 and 2025, 1.5 million 1080 poison baits specifically targeting dingoes were deployed by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.
A further 645 dingoes were either shot or trapped and shot during the same period.
Image: Michelle J Photography
The Minyumai Indigenous Rangers are leading the way on Dingo (Ngugum) management in New South Wales
The Minyumai Dingo Management Program demonstrates a different approach to Dingo management—Caring for Dingoes on Country—which combines traditional Bandjalang knowledge with Western science. The objectives include identifying populations, distribution, diet (through scat analysis), range, and behavior of the Dingo (Ngugum). Further, the Minyumai Rangers have identified opportunities to integrate the Dingo (Ngugum) within their feral animal control program on the IPA.
Following the National Forum, the Minyumai Rangers of the Bandjalang clan have implemented a groundbreaking Dingo management program on the 2,000-hectare Indigenous Protected Area (IPA).
The Minyumai Rangers are calling for a new approach to dingo management - Caring for Dingo on Country, where their cultural and ecological value is reflected in legislation and management.
Will you join them?
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Together, we can ensure the protection of New South Wales’ dingoes.
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