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Australia's 5,614 km Dingo Fence is the world's longest fence, and it still lets dingoes through

the gist

The Dingo Fence is a pest-exclusion fence in Australia, stretching 5,614 kilometres from Jimbour near Dalby in Queensland to the Nullarbor cliffs above the Great Australian Bight. It was built to keep dingoes out of the fertile south-east, where they had largely been wiped out, and to protect sheep flocks in southern Queensland. The fence has reduced sheep losses to predators, but holes found in the 1990s let dingo pups through. Dingoes can still be found in parts of the southern states, and rabbits and kangaroos now compete with sheep for pasture.

how it works

The fence works as a continuous barrier, but any gap lets animals through, and dingo pups have passed through holes. Keeping it intact requires constant maintenance across thousands of kilometres of arid land.

so what

The fence is a large-scale example of how a single barrier can shape ecology and farming across an entire continent. Its partial success shows that predator control is never simply a wall, since animals, gaps and competitors all change the outcome.

fun fact

The Dingo Fence is the longest fence in the world.

more on this

key facts

Country
Australia
Located in
Australia
Founded
1880

Facts: Wikidata (CC0)

Adapted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Poyt448 Peter Woodard, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons