A fight breaks out in the Plenty Gorge Parklands. Two large male kangaroos, sparring for dominance in the mob, go at it with six times the strength of an average human. And yet, the sight and sound of an unrestrained dog sends them and the hundred or so other kangaroos in the area scrambling.

Sitting partly on a basalt plain formed over 400 million years ago, nestled quietly behind the Hawkstowe Station, the Plenty Gorge Parklands are not recognised as dog friendly by Parks Victoria. Signage in the area shows that there are certain spots where dogs are allowed, granted they are on a leash. Problems tend to arise when people stop following the rules, allowing their furry friends to do as they please. This often means chasing other animals.

The park – an expansive bushland just 20km from the CBD – is one of a number of areas across Victoria that allows dogs to be on leash alongside Australia’s native wildlife. Kangaroos, echidnas, wallabies and wombats all call the area home. Waiting near any of the park’s numerous entrances, it doesn’t take long to see how issues might arise. Over two hours, 10 dogs and their owners pass through. Only six are on leashes. Un-leashed dogs aren’t an uncommon sight for locals, but there are fears that this problem could become even worse.

The Plenty Gorge Parklands are set to undergo a $20 million upgrade that will include the construction of the Plenty River Trail as part of the Victorian Government’s Suburban Parks Program. The proposed trail will be 19km long, running from Doreen to University Hill, with an additional 5km worth of trails running off it.

Parks Victoria tells upstart via email that the new trail will help connect the communities and allow “more people to visit and enjoy the park”. They also said that dogs will be allowed to walk on leash on the trail, something that Doreen local Suzanne Teese isn’t all that happy about.

“Once you allow dogs on lead anywhere, people always push the boundaries and let them off,” she tells upstart.

Teese, who works as a wildlife rescuer, has lived in the area for eight years now. She’s got plenty of stories about the local kangaroos being attacked, but one in particular stands out.

While relocating a kangaroo back to its mob after it entered a local school’s grounds, Teese watched on as two large dogs chased a large group of kangaroos nearby. Encounters like these are dangerous for kangaroos, as they can die from stress, but Teese found it equally as dangerous to confront the owner of the unrestrained dogs.

“I sort of walked up the hill and approached this person … and said ‘look you can’t have your dogs off leash here’ and he instantly became wild and aggressive,” she says.

“And I just continued to walk up close to him to speak to him, and he hip-and-shouldered me.”

Luckily, the situation didn’t escalate any further. The owner took off with his dogs in tow, and the kangaroo was taken safely to a shelter. But this typifies the battle between free will and conservation in Victoria’s parklands.

Native animals are not the only victims in the area. Like many who choose to live in the city, Shannon Johnson regularly escapes the bustle to explore the gorge by bike and has his own tale to tell after being bitten by an off-leash dog in 2020. After a few close encounters with the same dog earlier in the year, Johnson was out riding again in August when he ran into the kelpie and its owner while rounding a corner. As he tried to go around them, the dog latched on to his calf.

“I stopped because I was like ‘oh, that felt like it got me good’ and I’ve looked down and I can see a car door open on my leg of flesh and see my calf muscle through the hole in it,” he says.

The attack left him in hospital for a night, off work for a week, and with a $1600 hole in his pocket from medical bills. Although he returned to riding soon after, Johnson believes that the dangers of a similar incident happening would deter others from returning to the park.

“If you go in there with a young family and that happened, without a doubt you would not go back at all,” he says.

“If it had been my child that got bitten, I can safely say I’d be in jail.”

Teese and Johnson’s accounts – only two of many shared on the Friends of the Gorge Facebook group – suggest that off-leash dogs can pose a problem. However, Wildlife Victoria, the state’s wildlife emergency response service, has pointed out that there are bigger issues plaguing native wildlife than domesticated pets.

“The most significant threats to Victoria’s wildlife are climate change, urbanisation and habitat destruction,” they said in an email response.

“The continued urban sprawl into wildlife habitat and the impact of climate change on the migratory and breeding patterns of our native animals poses a far greater threat than domestic pets.”

Work on the new trail begins later in the year and it will be gradually created in sections, allowing for people to access parts of it as early as next year. In building the main path, areas of the park will have to be altered for sturdier trails and pavement to be put in place, taking even more habitat away from the animals who live there, something that Teese says is “typical”.

“It’s expendable, disposable, easy to take because no one’s going to complain. The animals can’t complain … I’m really cross about it actually.”

With designated dog walking areas on the outskirts of the park, and Parks Victoria confirming that the new main trail will allow for on-leash dogs, the already close proximity of people and animals is inevitably going to become closer. To ensure problems don’t get worse before they get better, dog owners will be relied upon to uphold the relationship between humans and wildlife.

Mandy Lee, who walks her four year old Labrador-Akita mix around the Hawkestowe neighbourhood and the nearby tracks that are dog friendly, does her best to keep her furry friend away from the ever-present wildlife. As someone who enjoys exploring, she said it would be a luxury for her to be able to bring her dog along as she traverses the gorge. But Lee knows that rules are rules, and they’re in place for a reason. Kangaroos and other inhabitants of the park are allowed to roam free, so encounters even on the outskirts where dogs are allowed are not uncommon. Lee says there is “no chance” of letting herself or her dog get in a fight with a large roo, she has devised a few ways to protect herself and the wildlife she encounters.

“My dog is well trained and won’t bark or lunge towards kangaroos or any of the ducks or other bird life around the paths,” she tells upstart.

It’s dog owners like Lee working in tandem with Suzanne Teese and other enforcers of the rules who keep the parklands a safe balance between human recreation space and wildlife habitat. However, Teese still feels that it’s confusing for people to know where they can and can’t walk their dogs, offering a simple solution.

“It would make it so much easier if there were no dogs allowed at all. Take your dog somewhere else.” she says.

“Kangaroos can’t go everywhere, or the echidnas or the wombats, they’ve just got their space here. Just leave them alone and let them live there. Enjoy it, walk gently through their habitat … without your dog disturbing everything.”

The other option, of course, is simply responsible dog ownership. For Lee, that involves keeping the recreation/wildlife balance in mind at all times when walking with her dog.

“We simply don’t go off the path, so he doesn’t have a chance to disturb wildlife.”

Cover photo: Provided by @tjbyrne_photography on Instagram.