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Tuesday 13 April 2021
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Holidays are for fun and learning
Picture: Yanni
MORE than 20 young Aboriginals were at the YMCA’s Camp Manyung, Mount Eliza last week to “reconnect with culture and country, as well as develop life-long physical skills”. The camp and Sport and Recreation Victoria joined forces with the Hastings-based Willum Warrain Aboriginal Association to provide the activities as well as teaching them about the yidaki (didgeridoo), jewellery crafts and boomerang throwing. The cost of the camp is part of a $300,000 federal government grant for active recreation programs for young Aboriginal people. “As an industry leader in recreation, the YMCA is excited to be partnering with Willum Warrain Aboriginal Association to deliver activities to increase participants’ physical skills in an inclusive environment without barriers like fees, uniforms and training,” Camp Manyung manager Jim Boyle said. He said participants at the inaugural Deadly Kids Camp would also be given skateboarding lessons and paint their own boards to take home. “The YMCA action sports team members who deliver the lessons, will also introduce the kids to local sporting groups so they can continue their newfound skills after the camp,” Mr Boyle said. Peter Aldenhoven, of Willum Warrain, said it was “important for our young people to have opportunities like this to have fun, make friends, learn new skills and tackle physical challenges together”. Keith Platt
Kangaroos ‘face extinction’ Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au DESPITE oversight by government agencies, there are fears that kangaroos could quickly become extinct on the Mornington Peninsula. Landowners and property managers on the peninsula are being issued with licences to shoot kangaroos, but no checks are made to ensure that only the specified numbers are killed. Seven of the 16 kangaroo species found in Victoria 150 years ago are now extinct. Cr David Gill, who was able to per-
suade his fellow councillors to ask the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP)for details about eastern grey kangaroo numbers on the peninsula, says he can remember a time when wild wombats and emus lived on the peninsula. The department sees the peninsula as part of Gippsland when it comes to estimates of kangaroos numbers and the issuing of “cull” licences, which stipulate that the animals must be shot. Animal activists want the peninsula to be classified as part of Melbourne, which would exclude it from the state government’s rules allowing for kan-
garoos to be “harvested”. Moves to stop the slaughter of kangaroos in Australia has also spread overseas, with two US congressmen trying to get support to stop kangaroo skins being used in the production of sports shoes. “The wombats and emus are now all gone, shot because they were considered pests,” Cr Gill told The News. His list of possible local extinctions includes animals, birds and insects. “Once plentiful native bees are now seldom seen, mainly because of broad spectrum spraying,” Cr Gill said. “Our beautiful bandicoots? Very dif-
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ficult to find, often victims of poisoning. Koalas are diminishing because of loss of habitat, dogs and koala-proof fencing.” He said small native birds were “disappearing” because of introduced birds and colonising noisy minors. Other creatures he feared could soon be added to the “disappearing” or extinct list were sugar gliders, feathertail gliders, growling grass frogs and legless lizards.” The shire’s move to seek information about kangaroos on the peninsula was a followed a failed attempt by Cr Gill to get council to call for a ban on
shooting kangaroos on the peninsula (“Council ignores move to end kangaroo shoots” The News 15/2/21). Cr Gill says documents released through a Freedom of Information request show approvals in 2020 for the shooting of 325 kangaroos on the peninsula although he “suspects that the figure isn’t exactly accurate because it is difficult to decipher all of the end dates”. “Also, there are separate culling operations, one of which was 300 at Cape Schanck two years ago which I know about from the property owner concerned.”
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