Sir – “Mark Reidel would like to see a Territory cooperative for small sized goat farming creating a “wide range of affiliated occupations and careers that currently are not in existence”.
This is not “thought provoking” it is a thought bubble.
There is a reason feral goats are not a problem in the NT. We have dingoes.
Western NSW and the Flinders don’t, and have goats aplenty.
Any farmed goats in the NT would have to be shepherded, and penned. Therefore uneconomic.
“The horny beasts could even be used in the fight against gamba grass and other invasive species as “goats relish eating weeds”.”
This is one of those persistent rural myths.
Sure, goats will eat weeds, but only after they have eaten everything else first.
Anyone who has driven through the Cobar area recently will know what I mean.
The ground absolutely bare, and trees and shrubs pruned up to goat-standing on hind legs- height.
I hope the other reconstruction ideas are a bit more soundly based.
Charlie Carter (pictured)
@ Charlie Carter: I wasn’t going to comment on the goats (have been rightly accused of having an opinion on everything) so am glad you did.
I grew up in the “knowledge” that goats had caused ecological devastation all over the world because they eat everything.
Maybe the money eating goat in the film “Boy” is a metaphor.