South Australia's dog fence to be rebuilt to keep out feral animals

Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said the rebuild was estimated to reduce the number of sheep losses and subsequently increase income for farmers.

“Farmers, land managers and pastoralists will save up to $97 million in wild dog management costs over 20 years,” Mr Littleproud said.

“This is going to be a game-changer for South Australian agriculture and these are exactly the types of projects we need to help kickstart the nation post-COVID.”

South Australia Regional Development Minister Tim Whetstone said the project would allow farmers to save more money and would benefit the local economy through creating jobs.

“This will be a mighty boon for our farmers who will save millions in pest animal management costs and enable farmers to safely restock properties with sheep,” he said.

The 5400 km dog fence is the world's longest continuous fence, with about 2150 km on South Australian land.

Of that, about 1600 km is more than 100 years old.

The federal and state governments are each contributing $10 million for the project with the additional $5 billion funded by industry.