{"id":14337,"date":"2026-05-19T13:00:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T13:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/14337\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T13:00:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T13:00:21","slug":"cull-of-20000-native-birds-at-newcastle-waters-cattle-station-will-not-go-ahead-after-parent-company-intervened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/14337\/","title":{"rendered":"Cull of 20,000 native birds at Newcastle Waters cattle station will not go ahead after parent company intervened"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The UK-based parent company of Consolidated Pastoral Company (CPC) has instructed its Northern Territory staff to abandon &#8220;any plans&#8221; to cull <a class=\"Link_link__5eL5m ScreenReaderOnly_srLinkHint__OysWz Link_showVisited__C1Fea Link_showFocus__ALyv2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2026-05-14\/corella-cull-permit-granted-newcastle-waters-station-nt\/106674900\" data-component=\"Link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">20,000 native birds at Newcastle Waters<\/a> cattle station.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">CPC is owned by UK private equity firm Terra Firma, which said on social media it was previously unaware of the plan to cull birds, and would ensure it did not go ahead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;As the owner of CPC, we were not aware of the application for a licence to cull birds at Newcastle Waters,&#8221; the company said in its post.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;We have made clear to CPC leadership that this is completely unacceptable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;We have instructed the Newcastle Waters leadership team, and CPC senior management to cease any plans for culling immediately.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We will meet with relevant environmental groups when we are in Australia later this year and thank them for bringing this matter to our attention.&#8221;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2026-05-14\/corella-cull-permit-granted-newcastle-waters-station-nt\/106674900\" data-component=\"FullBleedLink\" class=\"RelatedCard_link__rsgR9 FullBleedLink_root__lTw_U interactive_focusContext__yRhc_ interactive_defaults__AKxUU FullBleedLink_showVisited__g3Xvz\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Outback cattle station granted permit to cull 20,000 native birds<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP RelatedCard_synopsis__cFwMW Typography_sizeMobile14__u7TGe Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">A permit to cull 20,000 native birds has been granted to a cattle station in the Northern Territory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Newcastle Waters, 280 kilometres north of Tennant Creek, was last year granted a permit to kill 15,000 galahs and 5,000 little corellas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The granting of the licence was condemned by environmentalists and bird lovers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The company said a cull would be the last resort to mitigate the impact of the birds on crops, equipment, workers&#8217; mental health and biosecurity.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A man stands with arms crossed, wearing a bright green work shirt and cowboy hat. \" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779195621_942_c3e753a78f0595b209aa0b42bf48efd2.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Troy Setter previously told the ABC the large-scale bird cull at Newcastle Waters Station would be a &#8220;last resort&#8221;. (ABC Rural: Max Rowley)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">CPC chief executive Troy Setter previously said an initial trial was successful on 30 birds, but the full-scale cull had not commenced.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">He said staff had been using noise from firearms to scare birds away as an alternative solution.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">NT Parks and Wildlife Minister Marie-Clare Boothby previously said in parliamentary correspondence the region&#8217;s bird population had reached &#8220;unsustainable levels&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">This was due to &#8220;agricultural practices such as grain production, on-site storage and cattle feeding&#8221; acting as a food source for the birds, according to the minister.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"cattle gathered around a trough on a grass plain.\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779195621_203_fbb740324e360960e644a8afdbe27a06.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Newcastle Waters Station is a 1-million-hectare cattle breeding property operated by CPC. (Twitter: Troy Setter)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The culling permit expires on September 30.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Terra Firma was contacted for comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">CPC is one of Australia&#8217;s biggest beef producers and runs about 400,000 head of cattle across several stations in the NT, Queensland and Western Australia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">It has spent about $300 million <a class=\"Link_link__5eL5m ScreenReaderOnly_srLinkHint__OysWz Link_showVisited__C1Fea Link_showFocus__ALyv2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2025-12-15\/cpc-buys-beetaloo-station-aggregation-for-300-million-plus\/106143408\" data-component=\"Link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">buying the Beetaloo aggregation of stations<\/a> adjoining Newcastle Waters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK-based parent company of Consolidated Pastoral Company (CPC) has instructed its Northern Territory staff to abandon &#8220;any&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[14790,22,21,14792,12389,4368,14791,14795,12388,14789,14793,14794,14788],"class_list":["post-14337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-animal-cull","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-beef-cattle-farming","tag-bird-cull","tag-conservation","tag-conservation-nt","tag-corellas","tag-galahs","tag-hunting","tag-newcastle-waters","tag-newcastle-waters-cattle-station","tag-nt-bird-cull"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}