Landscapes Hills and Fleurieu is working towards large-scale feral deer eradication across the region, including Adelaide’s peri-urban fringes. Early intervention remains critical, as deer cause serious environmental damage, agricultural losses and road safety risks if populations are allowed to grow unchecked.
Building on the removal of more than 7,580 feral deer across the region, including over 2,400 from Adelaide’s fringes, the program has expanded coordinated ground and aerial operations to suppress population growth and protect high-value landscapes. Strong landholder participation across the peri‑urban fringe remains central to this approach.
South Australia has a rare opportunity to achieve an outcome no other mainland state has yet delivered: eradication of a well‑established invasive vertebrate species. That outcome depends on maintaining momentum. If coordinated control slows before eradication is achieved, deer numbers can rebuild quickly, undermining the investment already made and increasing the cost and complexity of future control. Experience interstate shows that when early action is missed, populations expand and the impacts become far harder and more expensive to manage.
The program is delivered in partnership with neighbouring landscape boards and the Department of Primary Industries and Regions South Australia (PIRSA), and is funded through the Landscape Levy and the Landscape Priorities Fund as part of the Now or Never – controlling feral deer and goats initiative.
