A trial allowing culled kangaroos to be used for pet food will be widened to include more parts of Victoria. Bendigo is likely to be included in the expansion.
More than 23,900 kangaroo carcasses have been processed for pet food under the trial so far, which started in 2014. The government recently decided to extend the trial for another two years.
The trial is now being conducted in 12 council areas, but councillors and farmers from other regions have urged the government to do more to address kangaroo numbers, citing the impact they are having on farms and concerns about the dangers kangaroos pose to motorists.
It is now likely to be extended to include the council areas of Bendigo and the Glenelg Shire, where it is believed that kangaroo populations have increased.
Some country councillors have also urged the government to allow culled kangaroos to be used for human consumption. Neville Goulding, a Gannawarra councillor, said the trial was "a good start", but added: "They're a valuable protein resource and I would hope eventually, that instead of just putting them in pet food, that we'd be able to use them for human consumption. New South Wales already does that."
Meanwhile, new figures from the City of Greater Bendigo indicate that hundreds of kangaroos are killed each year in the municipality after being struck by a motor vehicle.
In the past month alone 86 kangaroo carcasses were removed from roads in the Heathcote area, and about 60 from the Bendigo area by the council.
But these figures represent just some of the deaths, because they do not include kangaroos killed on VicRoads' roads in the municipality where the speed limit is 80 kph or greater. Over the course of a year the council estimates it removes about 900 carcasses from roads across the municipality.
Bendigo councillor James Williams said he wanted Bendigo to be included in the pet food trial. Kangaroo numbers had become "a real problem" in the municipality, were regularly involved in car accidents and had a significant impact on farms.
"We've actually seen them right in the CBD itself. And on a regular basis they come in around the city," he said.
"They are a major hazard (on the roads) and they're a major concern. We spend a lot of time picking up dead kangaroos," he said.
Environment Minister Lisa Neville said there was "no doubt" that kangaroos were posing "a real problem" in a number of Victorian communities. The trial was operating humanely under "very very strict conditions" and standards.
She said the trial had not led to more kangaroos being destroyed than would have been the case under the existing, long-running permit system that allowed farmers to control kangaroos.
"This doesn't result in more kangaroos being culled, what it does is result in better management of the carcasses to reduce that waste and vermin," she said.
Asked whether the pet food trial could become permanent, she said: "We'll have a look at that in a couple of years."
Brendan Roughead, the environment department's regional director for the Grampians Region, said the trial had progressed well. "The goal of the trial was to minimise waste and that's certainly happening. And it's had added benefits in terms of generating regional jobs," he said.
Most of the kangaroos shot in the trial were on "large commercial farming properties where they have significant kangaroo issues, and generally abutting significant tracts of public land."
About 20 professional shooters were participating in the trial, he said.
