The relative success of the campaign to stop the killing of kangaroos in Hattah-Kulkyne National Park in the 1980s was, at least in part, because the Australian Animal Welfare and Conservation movements joined forces. This campaign may well have been the first time ‘animal lovers’ and ‘greenies’ found common ground. There were both environmental and animal welfare issues at stake.
Unfortunately, the failure to stop the killing again in the 1990s was because the National Parks and Wildlife Service employed a divide and conquer approach. I think this is well enough explained in my novel ‘The Red Sands of Hattah’.
I am pleased to announce that Animals Australia, arguably the countries largest animal welfare organisation, has put its name to the list of supporting organisations. Purchasers of ‘The Red Sands of Hattah’ can now nominate Animals Australia for the $5 donation (i.e. what would be my royalties).
Meanwhile, Dr Geoff Mosely, Executive Director of the Australian Conservation Foundation at the time the book was set and now the Australian Director of the Centre for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy, has written a very supportive review of the book.
This, together with a growing number of very supportive emails and other reviews from readers has emboldened me. I believe ‘The Red Sands of Hattah’, my first attempt at a novel, is in fact “not a bad read”. More importantly, the historic approach of the book should assist contemporary defenders of wildlife. I hope it becomes a vehicle to bring the Animal Welfare and Conservation movements together again on the issue of a crazy kangaroo proof fence within a National Park and the regular killing of kangaroos within it.
I am confident of growing the list of supporting organisations. The National Parks and Wildlife Service may yet be convinced (or forced) to remove that kangaroo proof fence in Hattah-Kulkyne National Park.
