Wallaroo quota correction

A recent review of wallaroo population estimates by the Kangaroo Management Program revealed correction factors were not applied to data collected in 2007, 2016 and 2019. However, a correction factor of 1.85 was applied to population estimates reported in population reports (see Cairns et al., 2008, 2017 and 2020 on the Kangaroo Management Program webpage). The impact is that the quota will have been underestimated by the Kangaroo Management Program for these years. However, harvest data for the affected years show that wallaroo harvest has never exceeded 70% of the allocated quota; thus, harvest was not limited by this error.

To ensure the highest possible standards of data integrity and transparency are maintained, the Kangaroo Management Program has corrected these errors in the 2021 quota report. This now makes the wallaroo data for the Northern Tablelands consistent with survey methodology used since 2001. A summary of these changes for the Northern Tablelands is shown in Table 1 below.

Table 1: Wallaroo uncorrected and corrected population estimates and quota for the Northern Tablelands as well as the actual take for those years

The miscalculation carried over into the current quota for wallaroos in the commercial management zones of Armidale, Glen Innes and the Upper Hunter. To resolve this error a new quota has been calculated based on the corrected population estimate for 2021.

Table 2 shows the uncorrected population estimates and quotas and the corrected population estimates and quotas for wallaroos in each commercial management zones in the Northern Tablelands to be implemented for the 2021 harvest year.

Table 2: Current (incorrect) wallaroo population estimates and quotas and the corrected population estimates and quotas