Chris Henggeler is the only grazier in Australia using feral donkeys to regenerate his remote property. Now he's on the wrong side of the law.
In a remote pocket of the Kimberley, Chris Henggeler has seen scorched dry earth become a thriving oasis — an extraordinary transformation he credits partly to a radical experiment with a maligned feral pest.
He grew up on a farm in Zimbabwe before his family relocated to Switzerland in 1973 when civil war broke out; she spent her childhood in a picturesque village at the base of the Swiss Alps. Chris knew early on that he was losing a lot of soil and "unless something was done, it would all be a desert one day".The young couple initially planned to embark on a pastoral venture subsidised by tourism. But after a few years piloting a small plane over the region on supply runs, Chris realised he was "seeing a disaster unfolding"."I had no intention of becoming a landcare apostle," he says — but he couldn't sit back and do nothing.
"We wouldn't be able to sustain these results without the donkeys," says Chris, who in 2022 was namedDonkeys are a feral pest but they helped Chris "turn a desert into an oasis". Now he is risking jail to save them.The donkey project is the first of its kind in Australia. Chris is on the ecological front lines — and the wrong side of the law.
In 2021 the Department of Agriculture and Regional Development issued the Henggelers with a kill order after spotting the donkeys in a helicopter fly-over inspection.Daughter Rebecca says while the siblings don’t always see eye-to-eye about the future of Kachana, nobody would like to see it start degrading again.The Henggelers say the Kachana donkeys are restricted to a small area of the property and number "somewhere between 110 and 250".
Ecologist Arian Wallach from the Queensland University of Technology has installed action cameras across Kachana to contrast areas with and without donkeys. She now believes the animals could help combat the threat of bushfires. Chris says the best way to test the water quality of a property is to head to the lowest point and taste it for yourself.And it was tough to watch his three children miss out on luxuries such as family holidays and to feel isolated in more ways than one.
Donkeys Wild Donkeys Regeneration Bushfire Bushfire Backburning Bushfire Season Farming Landcare Land Management Cattle
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