September 9, 2026 • 5 mins
Our Australian correspondent talks about bird flu, managing foxes, dingos and kangaroos, and a new beef bull sale record of nearly half a million dollars!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, I've missed this bloke on the country. Haven't chatted
to him for a month. Chris Russell, our Aussie correspondent,
our longest standing correspondent here on the show. I've been
on my deathbed. Well, not quite deathbed, Chris, but I've
been crook with influenza A. So let's segue from my
flu to the bird flu, which is a much bigger problem.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yes, well, it is a big problem. And now, of course,
as I told Hamish last week, it's now spread to
urban foxes. So, you know, one in Adelaide so far
and one in Melbourne. And, of course, it's brought up
one of the issues here in Australia that foxes in
metropolitan areas are three times higher than they are in
(00:41):
urban areas. So it's about 1.7 million foxes estimated to
be in Australia. And some of the parts of Melbourne
have as many as 16 to 20 foxes per square
kilometre running around. So, of course, now that they're not
really worried about the foxes transmitting the disease to humans
(01:03):
or anything like that, but they are saying that because
they scavenge and move around and get into backyard chooks
and all that sort of thing, that they could aid
in the spread of the bird flu through the backyards
of all these urban areas. And we really need to
think about how we're going to start controlling and culling
these animals. They're like cats walking along the top of
(01:25):
fences and running around, and they find much more nutrition
in the garbage bins of the big cities than they
do running around the bush looking for rabbits.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Hey, Chris, are you allowed to shoot them?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah, you're allowed to, definitely allowed to shoot them. In fact,
there's a bounty on them in many areas where you
can actually take in their scalp and down the back,
including the tail, and you can get a bounty for that.
You can't use guns in metropolitan areas.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Yeah, I guess that's the issue. You can't go being
Rambo in the middle of Melbourne. Talking about culling pests,
kangaroo and dingo management has been taken over by the
Woke Brigade. and farmers are being overwhelmed by red tape.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yes, well, this is really annoying people because once upon
a time, you know, farmers could manage their kangaroo populations
and they used to apply to the New South Wales
National Parks and Wildlife. But now that's been changed to
being looked after Penny Sharp's Department of Climate Change, Energy
and the Environment and Water. And all of a sudden,
(02:29):
all the sort of urban latte-drinking woke people are making
decisions about this. And, of course, they all... think that
kangaroos and our national symbols shouldn't be culled at all
when in fact they haven't taken any notice of the
fact that millions of them die in the droughts in
terrible circumstances. No support given to kangaroos to survive the
(02:50):
drought and yet farmers who are facing overpopulation, damaging crops,
damaging fences, they have to now send in evidence of
that damage including photos and videos and so on and
invoices for damage repair. They have to Provide evidence of
non-lethal attempts at kangaroo management, which have been tried and
(03:11):
proved to have failed. And of course, the much more
sensible option is to actually allow professional hunters who are
trained to do this to actually turn it into a
business and keep these animals under control. A, so they
are not overpopulated in times of drought. and B, so
that they can make sure these are humanely killed rather
(03:32):
than left to die from lack of salvation. The whole
thing is just a shambles shrouded in sort of woke
idealism about our national symbol, I fear, Jamie.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Don't start me on woke idealism. I could talk about
your Prime Minister, Alba, but I won't. I haven't got time.
I want to talk about, because we've had record prices
here in New Zealand this season, for our bulls, for
our beef bulls. You've sold one for nearly half a
million dollars. I'm assuming it's a beef bull.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Yeah, it is a beef bull, and it's a Miller
Murrah Angus beef bull, $ 430, 000, which is a hell of
a lot of money for a bull called Miller Murrah
Wyatt W50. And 834 kilograms, 19 months old, 44 centimeter
(04:22):
scrotal circumference, if you're interested in that. Amazing. Bull bought
down to spend that sort of money on a bull.
It's a heck of a lot of money. And it
surpassed the previous record for any sort of bull or
female sold for $ 400, 000 in 2022. And, you know, they're
(04:43):
saying this is a magnificent animal. And it just shows
you the faith people have, particularly in black animals, Angus
or Wagyu. And they had an amazing sale this year
of Angus's up their annual sale, averaging $ 48, 000. So it's
been a good year for bulls. And this is an
amazing animal. I'm sure it's going to produce some amazing
(05:06):
steers in its time.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
OK, Chris Russell, I'm out of time. I haven't even
got time to talk about the LA Rams and the
San Francisco 49ers who have made their way to Melbourne.
We might touch on that one next week for a
bit of NFL. Of course, we've got NRL to worry
about in this country, and I know that our Warriors
are up against your Dolphins, so look forward to a
bit of trans-Tasman rivalry this weekend. We'll see you next week.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
No worries, Jamie.
Well, I've missed this bloke on the country. Haven't chatted
to him for a month. Chris Russell, our Aussie correspondent,
our longest standing correspondent here on the show. I've been
on my deathbed. Well, not quite deathbed, Chris, but I've
been crook with influenza A. So let's segue from my
flu to the bird flu, which is a much bigger problem.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yes, well, it is a big problem. And now, of course,
as I told Hamish last week, it's now spread to
urban foxes. So, you know, one in Adelaide so far
and one in Melbourne. And, of course, it's brought up
one of the issues here in Australia that foxes in
metropolitan areas are three times higher than they are in
(00:41):
urban areas. So it's about 1.7 million foxes estimated to
be in Australia. And some of the parts of Melbourne
have as many as 16 to 20 foxes per square
kilometre running around. So, of course, now that they're not
really worried about the foxes transmitting the disease to humans
(01:03):
or anything like that, but they are saying that because
they scavenge and move around and get into backyard chooks
and all that sort of thing, that they could aid
in the spread of the bird flu through the backyards
of all these urban areas. And we really need to
think about how we're going to start controlling and culling
these animals. They're like cats walking along the top of
(01:25):
fences and running around, and they find much more nutrition
in the garbage bins of the big cities than they
do running around the bush looking for rabbits.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Hey, Chris, are you allowed to shoot them?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah, you're allowed to, definitely allowed to shoot them. In fact,
there's a bounty on them in many areas where you
can actually take in their scalp and down the back,
including the tail, and you can get a bounty for that.
You can't use guns in metropolitan areas.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Yeah, I guess that's the issue. You can't go being
Rambo in the middle of Melbourne. Talking about culling pests,
kangaroo and dingo management has been taken over by the
Woke Brigade. and farmers are being overwhelmed by red tape.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yes, well, this is really annoying people because once upon
a time, you know, farmers could manage their kangaroo populations
and they used to apply to the New South Wales
National Parks and Wildlife. But now that's been changed to
being looked after Penny Sharp's Department of Climate Change, Energy
and the Environment and Water. And all of a sudden,
(02:29):
all the sort of urban latte-drinking woke people are making
decisions about this. And, of course, they all... think that
kangaroos and our national symbols shouldn't be culled at all
when in fact they haven't taken any notice of the
fact that millions of them die in the droughts in
terrible circumstances. No support given to kangaroos to survive the
(02:50):
drought and yet farmers who are facing overpopulation, damaging crops,
damaging fences, they have to now send in evidence of
that damage including photos and videos and so on and
invoices for damage repair. They have to Provide evidence of
non-lethal attempts at kangaroo management, which have been tried and
(03:11):
proved to have failed. And of course, the much more
sensible option is to actually allow professional hunters who are
trained to do this to actually turn it into a
business and keep these animals under control. A, so they
are not overpopulated in times of drought. and B, so
that they can make sure these are humanely killed rather
(03:32):
than left to die from lack of salvation. The whole
thing is just a shambles shrouded in sort of woke
idealism about our national symbol, I fear, Jamie.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Don't start me on woke idealism. I could talk about
your Prime Minister, Alba, but I won't. I haven't got time.
I want to talk about, because we've had record prices
here in New Zealand this season, for our bulls, for
our beef bulls. You've sold one for nearly half a
million dollars. I'm assuming it's a beef bull.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Yeah, it is a beef bull, and it's a Miller
Murrah Angus beef bull, $ 430, 000, which is a hell of
a lot of money for a bull called Miller Murrah
Wyatt W50. And 834 kilograms, 19 months old, 44 centimeter
(04:22):
scrotal circumference, if you're interested in that. Amazing. Bull bought
down to spend that sort of money on a bull.
It's a heck of a lot of money. And it
surpassed the previous record for any sort of bull or
female sold for $ 400, 000 in 2022. And, you know, they're
(04:43):
saying this is a magnificent animal. And it just shows
you the faith people have, particularly in black animals, Angus
or Wagyu. And they had an amazing sale this year
of Angus's up their annual sale, averaging $ 48, 000. So it's
been a good year for bulls. And this is an
amazing animal. I'm sure it's going to produce some amazing
(05:06):
steers in its time.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
OK, Chris Russell, I'm out of time. I haven't even
got time to talk about the LA Rams and the
San Francisco 49ers who have made their way to Melbourne.
We might touch on that one next week for a
bit of NFL. Of course, we've got NRL to worry
about in this country, and I know that our Warriors
are up against your Dolphins, so look forward to a
bit of trans-Tasman rivalry this weekend. We'll see you next week.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
No worries, Jamie.
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