they can to protect 400 kangaroos at

Belconnen Naval Station, after the

Defence Department announced that a

contentious cull was back on again.

A year after it was first raised on

environmental grounds, Defence

spokesman Brigadier Andrew Nikolic

said yesterday the on-again off-again

cull was back under way and would be

completed within three weeks.

RSPCA ACT executive director

Michael Linke described the process

that led to yesterday's announcement

as an absolute nightmare for everyone

involved.

Brigadier Nikolic said the Government

had decided a proposed translocation

study, whereby most of the

about 600 kangaroos would be moved

to NSW, was not cost-effective at

$3.5million.

There were also concerns about the

impact of the onset of winter on food

stocks, and difficulty finding sites to

release the animals.

''Defence therefore has no option but

to undertake a cull at Belconnen Naval

Transmitting Station,'' Brigadier Nikolic

said. The culling process has

begun, with fences erected on the site

to herd the animals together and an

ACT park ranger's vehicle carrying

hessian sacks and a sharps bucket

entering the 200ha Lawson property

yesterday afternoon.

Five large freezer boxes, which will be

used to store the carcasses, have arrived

on site.

Contractors Cumberland Ecology

will kill about 400 of the kangaroos,

beginning as early as today.

The site's suburban location means

the animals cannot be shot with bullets.

Instead, they will be shot with

tranquilliser darts then killed by a lethal

injection of sodium pentobarbitone,

known as Lethabarb, administered by a

vet.

Brigadier Nikolic said Cumberland

Ecology was required in its contract to

comply with the national code of

practice for the humane destruction of

kangaroos.

However, protesters at the site,

including Animal Liberation ACT

spokesman Bernard Brennan, are

vowing they would do ''whatever it

takes'' to stop the cull.

Dr Rosemary Garlick said she would

not stand by and let it go ahead.

''We will go in there if we have to,''

she said.

''If they do go ahead, we will get

the most graphic images so that we

can show the world what the Rudd

Government is doing.

''It will be worth a lot to the

Japanese to show the hypocrisy of

the Australian Government before

the whaling commission in a few

weeks.''

Protester Tigga Williams fears that

''as soon as this begins they [the

kangaroos] will panic and it will turn

into a bloodbath''.

Eleven police watched over about

25 protesters at the site yesterday

afternoon with a half dozen promising

to stay overnight before

hundreds arrived today.

ACT police reported the protesters

had been peaceful last night, and

Brigadier Nikolic hoped that would

continue.

The cull is happening because of

concerns the kangaroo population

has grown too large for the enclosed

space, and because of worries this

could impact on protected

grasslands and species, such as the

Perunga grasshopper, the striped

legless lizard and the golden sun

moth. Brigadier Nikolic said Defence

had thoroughly examined options to

responsibly manage the sensitive

environmental issues at the site.

It first announced the cull last

May, then there were plans to move

the animals, effectively blocked by

the ACT Government, and then the

proposed trial, before yesterday's

about face.

A trial to develop a fertility control

vaccine, run by the University of

Newcastle, would continue and the

animals involved in this process

would not be culled.

Mr Linke, who is considering

sending inspectors to monitor the

cull to ensure it was humane, said a

humane cull had always been the

only appropriate action, and he

criticised Defence for procrastinating

for so long. ''We have always

wanted the outcome to be something

that is centred around maximising

animal welfare,'' he said.

ACT Greens MLA Deb Foskey said

she would have thought Defence

could act more decisively than it had.

''In the meantime, nothing has

progressed except these important

grasslands home to endangered

species are becoming more

degraded, while Defence

prevaricates,'' she said.

Cumberland Ecology and ACT

Chief Minister Jon Stanhope whose

Government previously ruled out

translocating the animals would

not talk to The Canberra Times last

night.