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The Myall Lakes Dingo/Dapin project (MLDP), ongoing since 2019, is a scientific research group from the University of New South Wales (91ɫ��Ƭ) Sydney which investigates dingo ecology, population dynamics, and social behaviour. The project is focused in and around Myall Lakes National Park on Worimi Country on the Mid North Coast. The project team actively publishes on dingo ecology and directly informs dingo management within the Myall Lakes National Park and beyond through providing a scientific evidence base, robust monitoring methodology, and through regular working group meetings with project partners engaged in dingo management. This document provides recommendations for dingo management, policy, and monitoring within NSW National Parks, based on our extensive experience in understanding dingo ecology and human-wildlife conflict more broadly. We recommend a nuanced approach to dingo management which is based on the best available scientific evidence.

The MLDP submits that dingoes should be recognised and managed within NSW National Parks as an ecologically and culturally significant native apex predator whose presence is fundamental to the health of Country, and whose intrinsic value as a unique wildlife species and component of biodiversity should be recognised without the need to continually demonstrate its value.

The MLDP supports future management approaches that integrate contemporary western science and management with Traditional Owner knowledge and practices and are focused on balancing risk and economic costs against ecological and cultural benefits. Given substantial ethical concerns, welfare costs, and the quantities of public money spent year-on-year on lethal control of dingo populations, all aspects of dingo management should be conducted under an adaptive management framework, where the impacts of management are directly assessed so that lessons learned can be applied to ensure that goals are being met, or adjustments made and monitored until they are.��

The management of dingoes in National Parks and beyond requires a clear co-designed vision to guide management actions.

Management frameworks should be co-designed with the appropriate Indigenous groups. Many such groups recognise dingoes as an integral component of healthy ecosystems and thriving cultural landscapes, and express deep spiritual connections with dingoes. Aboriginal voices continue to be excluded from dingo management decisions.

We propose several recommendations to improve the management and knowledge of dingo populations within National Parks in New South Wales, which recognise and balance their ecological, economic, and cultural benefits against the risks to public safety and the economic costs to nearby livestock enterprises.

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