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ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Werrimull women's league footballers boycott Millewa centenary game over alleged sexual assault
Female footballers in a north-west Victorian league have boycotted a major event in protest of their club's handling of a sexual assault allegation. The Millewa Centenary Day on June 7 at Lake Cullulleraine drew a crowd of hundreds from across the region.. But notably absent from the football and netball showcase were the majority of the Werrimull Football Netball Club's women's football team, who refused to play. Werrimull FNC player Jemma Jo Johnson, who uses the pronouns they/them, said the boycott was a response to the club's decision not to suspend a male player under investigation by AFL Victoria following a sexual assault allegation. Johnson said eight women from the Magpies squad had chosen to quit playing for the club as a result. "Our safe place has been absolutely just stripped from us," they said. "It is time — they [Werrimull Football Netball Club] really have a chance to not just protect us and look after us, but show the rest of the league that the people in power aren't going to allow the females to feel unsafe." The ABC understands the allegation was reported to the club and AFL Victoria but not to police. Werrimull Football Netball Club president Dale Ramsey confirmed AFL Victoria was investigating an incident. In a statement, the club said it was "deeply concerned and saddened by recent allegations". "We take these allegations extremely seriously and are committed to fostering a safe, respectful, welcoming and inclusive environment for all players, members and supporters — both on and off the field," the statement said. The protest has highlighted what University of Canberra sport integrity and ethics associate professor Catherine Ordway said was a grey area for AFL clubs. She said each club should decide in advance what to do in the event of a player facing serious allegations. "It's always better, in the calm time when there hasn't been an incident, to sit down and say 'What do we stand for as a club?'" Dr Ordway said. "If we care about keeping women and girls safe, if we care about keeping young people safe, then let's have some rules and some guidelines so that if this comes up in future then we know how to act." She said a one-size-fits-all rule was difficult to implement. "There are always going to be hard cases where a blanket rule would be completely inappropriate and unfair because it might depend on the age of the [people] involved," Dr Ordway said. The ABC understands Werrimull FNC does not have specific guidelines relating to players under active AFL integrity or police investigations. Johnson said the club had lost key members due to the way it had handled the case. "We've actually lost a couple of really, really valuable and much-loved people in our club," they said. "That's the part that we feel the most heartbroken about, I think, is that one person is prioritised over a whole team that has put nothing but love and energy into the club. "There is a bigger issue here across the league, not just in our club." In a statement sent out to clubs across north-west Victoria, Millewa Football Netball League (MFNL) chairperson Emily Harlock-Knights said the league "unequivocally condemns any form of behaviour that is abusive, disrespectful, or unbecoming — whether on or off the field". But she said the league and clubs were not equipped to investigate serious incidents. "It is not the role of the MFNL or our clubs to act as judge, jury, or executioner," Ms Harlock-Knights said. AFL Victoria has been contacted for comment.
News.com.au
an hour ago
- News.com.au
‘Powerful jaws': Postie reveals horrific trauma after vicious dog attack on the job
A Perth postie has revealed the horrific trauma she suffered after a brutal dog attack while on the job. It comes as Australia Post announced plans to arm posties with citronella spray to fend of dangerous dogs, and a new study revealed nine posties are attacked on average every day across the country. Bronwyn Adamson had been working for Australia Post as a postie on an electric delivery vehicle (EDV) for only a few short weeks in Perth when she was targeted by a dog while doing her postal run. The attack left her with lifelong scars and trauma. She has 17 years of experience as a veterinarian nurse under her belt and has adopted several rescue dogs with '(traumatic) pasts', giving her plenty of experience with unpredictable animals. However, an hour-and-a-half into her postal run, she arrived at a house for a parcel delivery that required a signature, 'walked up and knocked on the door'. A male voice boomed from the side gate, telling Ms Adamson he'd be right there to sign for the package. 'I turned to (face) that voice, and next thing, this dog just launched at me and bit my breast,' she said, a feeling she described as 'very unpleasant'. 'I don't know what breed (it was), but it had powerful jaws,' she recalled. 'It (made) a puncture wound on my left breast and left extensive bruising.' The man was 'very apologetic' after the incident, and 'growled' at the dog to scare it away, but the damage was done. In the weeks that passed, the bruising became so extensive that it 'ended up in a haematoma about the size of a golf ball'. Ms Adamson's recovery has taken months, and she has only recently been given the all clear by her doctors. 'It was a very painful experience,' she said. On average, there are nine reported attacks on posties every day across the country, though attacks are more common in certain states and suburbs. Western Australia, where Ms Adamson works, is the third worst-affected state in the country for dog attacks on posties, with 184 reported attacks in areas including Joondalup, Geraldton and Malaga between November 15, 2024 and May 15, 2025. Leading the pack is Queensland, which has reported 388 incidents in the last six months, with the worst-affected areas Darra, Bundamba and Toowoomba. In NSW, the second-most affected state in the country, Australia Post reported 329 incidents, with the worst three areas Moree, Penrith and Waterloo. Victoria is fourth worst, reporting 138 incidents, with the majority of dog attacks happening in Oakleigh South, Mooroolbark, Deepdene and Mornington. 'Moree in NSW is one of many hotspots where the number of roaming and unrestrained dogs has created dangerous conditions for our posties,' Australia Post general manager safety Russell Munro said in a statement. 'When our people continue to end up in hospital, we have a responsibility to act and this (using citronella spray) is a last-resort measure.' The most common incidents occur when dogs are roaming around or escaping from a person's property, with 57 per cent of all attacks happening while the dog is on the street. However, nearly 40 per cent of all cases happen on the customer's property – half of which occur when they open their front door. Ms Adamson said she wasn't the only one in her area to suffer at the hands of unruly dogs. '(Attacks) have happened to quite a few people here at the actual post office, and they've ended up in hospital because of puncture wounds, with lots of blood on knees and elbows,' she told NewsWire. 'It is a constant thing.' She said reactive dogs weren't necessarily a concern because owners generally knew how to keep them at bay. However, it's the 'friendliest, loveliest little dogs' that pose the biggest risk for posties. 'Unfortunately, (little dogs) see us as a threat because we come every day and we leave every day because they bark at us,' she said. 'And we keep coming back and they get angrier with us, until eventually, if they get out the door or if the gate gets left open, they'll bolt outside and bite us because that's their next line of defence.' It's a heartbreaking situation, she told NewsWire. 'I love dogs,' Ms Adamson said. While she has experience with reactive dogs and loves canines in general, Ms Anderson confessed the attack left her so traumatised it affected her job. 'I'm very conscious when I hear a dog barking,' she said. While most pet owners are 'very understanding' when she asks them to place their dogs behind a fly screen or in another room when delivering parcels, she's still 'terrified' when a dog's reaction is so strong it can 'rattle the glass windows'. 'I was terrified that the flimsy flyscreen was not going to work,' she told NewsWire. 'So I ended up carding the parcel and not approaching the door at all, so they had to go to the post office to pick it up.' Australia Post is taking the next steps to prevent further attacks on posties by introducing a water-based citronella spray to fend off attacking dogs. From the end of July, posties will be equipped with the spray, which is non-harmful and 80 per cent effective in making dogs retreat, but they should only use it as a last resort. Posties will also undergo extensive training to use the deterrent, which can only be used under strict protocols. 'The citronella spray will give me peace of mind,' Ms Adamson said. 'I'll feel safer knowing I have something that could protect me from another attack.'
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Professional shooters patrol parks in Canberra in search of persistent pests
Rabbits are being shot in the area of Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra's centre in an effort to keep their population under control. The thermal-assisted rabbit control program has been used in the Mulligans Flat and Goorooyarroo nature reserves since 2014, and in Canberra Nature Park reserves since 2023. "It's very carefully managed," Mark Sweaney of ACT Parks and Conservation said. "It's done with air rifles, [so they're relatively low-powered], by professional shooters, that spend all their time undertaking rabbit control, so they've got techniques available that prioritise public safety." The program is continuing amid fears rabbit numbers could be growing at a concerning rate. "Australians don't have good memories of what really out of control rabbit populations are, but we could be on the brink of starting to see that," Invasive Species Council chief executive Jack Gough said. There was a time when Australia was overrun with rabbits in plague proportions. With only physical means to control them at that time, they caused widespread environmental, agricultural and economic destruction. Previous virus releases, like myxomatosis and calicivirus, have brought rabbit numbers down to historic lows. But experts say a new virus is needed every 10 to 15 years as rabbits build immunity. As the effectiveness of the virus fades along with the memory of the destruction rabbits can cause, there are calls to fast-track and fund the next biocontrol. Many Canberrans have noticed rabbits popping up in areas they've never been seen before — veggie gardens, local streets, and the lush lawns of Parliament House. "What we're seeing is what happens when we have enough food and favourable seasons for rabbits," Mr Sweaney said. "Rabbits start spreading and occurring in new places and return to where they already occurred." In a good season, female rabbits can have three litters a year with up to eight rabbits per litter. "Thousands of rabbits can come from few in a very short time," Mr Sweaney said. Mr Gough said the "perfect storm" is a few good years followed by a drought. "While rabbit numbers have been low, after a couple of very good seasons in a lot of Australia and as virus efficacy starts to drop off dramatically, this is going to start being an issue that turns up in the inboxes of politicians," Mr Gough said. Rabbits breed like rabbits, and Mr Gough says to stop rabbit populations from increasing, you need to remove roughly 87 per cent of rabbits in an area each year. Areas that are difficult to treat, or where the rabbits are resistant to the virus, become harbours for rabbits to breed and multiply. Cooperation and coordination are needed to achieve success, but still, even with a Rabbit Control Working Group in the ACT — made up of ACT government departments, the National Capital Authority and the Department of Defence — there are areas that provide the perfect habitat for rabbits. One example is the hedges around Lake Burley Griffin and Kings Avenue Bridge, a space that is making it harder to tackle the problem. "We spend over $500,000 annually on rabbit control across the ACT. That's not including staff time," Mr Sweaney said. "What we want to see more biocontrol in the pipeline, that's what really makes a difference. It's a real battle. We've got a lot of resources put toward rabbit control and there's still a lot of areas we can't get to." While rabbits may appear harmless, CSIRO Health and Biosecurity senior principal research scientist Tanja Strive describes them as a "reverse keystone species" that has a devastating ecological impact far beyond what their size might suggest. Beyond decimating agriculture industries and competing with native animals and plants for resources, large rabbit populations sustain significant numbers of feral cats and foxes, worsening those pest problems. Controlling rabbits, therefore, delivers multiple biodiversity benefits across the landscape. "One way of pulling down the fox numbers long-term is to actually control rabbits," said Dr Strive. "If you do have to prioritise your biodiversity dollars, rabbits are really good targets because by targeting rabbits, you will achieve a lot of really positive impacts in all directions." Dr Strive and her colleagues have been at the forefront of rabbit biocontrol research for decades. Their work focuses on rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV), a calicivirus that has been used to successfully manage rabbit populations in Australia since the 1990s, and they are working on the next generation of biocontrol. "It has to be species-specific — obviously, that's the first priority. And it has to be [highly] effective at reducing population, and repeatable," Dr Strive said. She says if the population reaches plague proportions again, not only will it take us back to where we were, but will destroy all the long-term biodiversity gains that have been made by the long-term suppression of rabbits. "It's not about killing lots of rabbits. It's about keeping rabbit numbers low," Dr Strive said. She emphasises that there must also be a vaccine ready to roll out to protect the domestic and farmed rabbit population against any new virus that is developed. Dr Strive suggests that with rabbit numbers at historic lows for a decade, she suspects the issue has dropped down the priority list for funding and public attention. "Biocontrol may have become a victim of its own success because numbers have been at historic lows for 10 years," she said. "It's a bit out of sight, out of mind, and it might have been replaced as a top priority by other equally pressing issues." There's an urgent imperative to develop the next generation of rabbit biocontrols before the current ones lose their effectiveness and Australia faces another rabbit population explosion. "Up to now, we've been supported, we've had industry support for this work, and at the moment, we have federal funding to see us for the next little while, but not to the point where there is a new product ready for this. "It's always a challenge in any field of science. Sustainable long-term funding is a problem." Jack Gough puts it another way, saying "we are always going to be in a race with rabbits" to keep their population down. "We're always going to need new innovations, whether it's new methods to distribute these biocontrols or entirely new biocontrols," Mr Gough said. "If we take our foot off the pedal, which is what's happening right now, we will lose the race." At CSIRO's Black Mountain laboratories in Canberra, Dr Strive and her team are working on new approaches to rabbit biocontrol. These include genetic biocontrol, otherwise known as gene-drives, that could offer alternative, non-lethal methods for rabbit population control in the future. "Gene-drives may be a tool that will get them to eventually breed themselves out of existence, in a very Australian specific manner," Dr Strive said. "But that technology could be decades away. "In the meantime, we need a virus or two or three."
