The rise of the Eastern Market Indicator to record levels has seen an increase in thefts of wool as thieves target shearing sheds in an area in central Victoria.
Strathlea woolgrower Wayne Dodson said the theft of four bales of wool from his property on March 28 was the third time thieves had targeted his property.
The previous thefts had been a utility vehicle and prior to that a chainsaw.
Mr Dodson said the wool was worth $2500 to $3000 per bale and was stolen in a one and a half hour time period when he was away from the property.
“I was away from the shed and house while feeding sheep on a nearby block and that’s when they hit,” Mr Dodson said.
Mr Dodson said he returned home and had lunch before going to the shearing shed and finding things out of place and the wool missing.
“It was pretty brazen and opportunistic, with neighbors around,” he said.
“One neighbor actually had to give way to a vehicle with wool bales on it.”
First Constable Brendan McManus, Central Goldfields Criminal Investigation Unit, said police were currently investigating the theft, as well as a theft of 12 bales of wool at Bears Lagoon, which was valued at $12,000, and an attempted theft from a shed at Moolort.
First Constable McManus said investigations were continuing.
Victoria Police have warned any farmer who was shearing or who had sheared their sheep and was storing the wool in shearing sheds that thieves were targeting sheds.
They advised farmers to lock sheds and if possible, install security cameras for protection.
First Constable McManus said farmers could clearly mark wool and take photographs to assist in possible identification later.
Anyone with any suspicions or information should contact their local police station.
Information provided would be analysed and if credible distributed.
Crime survey
Farm crime is grossly under-reported – that is the preliminary finding from Federation University’s farm crime survey.
According to the Victorian Farmers Federation, researchers had found that farmers don’t report crime because they believed there was too little evidence to convict.
Other reasons were that farmers were unsure about when the crime happened, it wasn’t clear exactly what was taken, or didn’t believe the police will do anything about it.
Farm crime experts and Victorian Police are calling for farmers to report all suspected farm crime, regardless of how much evidence they believed exists.
