Updated
A Western Queensland employment service has identified fencing as a growth industry once the drought breaks, so it is training job seekers for the task.
RAPAD Employment Services is helping to build a wild dog proof fence around the Longreach Pastoral College, after more than 40 sheep were killed in one recent attack.
The Service's Tony Rayner, said the drought has meant they have twice the number of registered job seekers working as part of the program.
"The drought has clearly increased the number of people seeking work, due to either losing positions or work just not being available in the contracting area and obviously the impact of casual work and permanent work on properties has had a significant impact," he said.
"It has resulted in our numbers increasing, doubling in fact in the last two years."
He said building the fence is a great opportunity to skill some of the 330 job seekers registered with the service whilst also training students at the college.
"The purpose of the activities that we undertake with the job seekers is to give them exposure to real life work," he said.
"We try to undertake small activities that don't interfere with any private contractors.
"One of those is the construction and erection of a wild dog fence around the Longreach pastoral college.
It is a great opportunity for our job seekers to gain fencing skills to gain employment in a growth industry, which will be the construction of wild dog fencing.
RAPAD Employment Services General Manager, Tony Rayner
"This involves training students at the college and our job seekers, so it tends to slow down the kilometres achieved per day and that is obviously not appealing to a contractor.
"Whereas with our program it is something we can adapt too and we are quite happy for our [RAPAD and Pastoral College] supervisors to share the training and achieve a slightly longer project but still with a great outcome.
"It is a great opportunity for our job seekers to gain fencing skills and construction skills that will, when the drought breaks, provide the skills and experience they need to gain employment in a growth industry, which will be the construction of wild dog fencing."
The Longreach pastoral College is paying for the materials.
College Director Karen Smith said the fence is an important investment for the college.
"Putting this fence up is about securing our stock and making it a safe environment," she said.
"It is also about the financial loss for us.
"The last attack was on the stud merinos and we lost over 40, that was within the last couple of months.
"We have had quite a few attacks this year and they have been mainly from town dogs."
Topics: pest-management, land-management, beef-cattle, sheep-production, community-education, adult-education, longreach-4730
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