1080 across the fence: what the neighbours are owed
A 1080 program is lawful work done by authorised people, and the part of it a householder meets is a notice, owed to every neighbour inside one kilometre at least three days ahead, and signs that stay up for weeks afterwards.
The notice, in the numbers the law uses
NSW law puts the duty on the person doing the baiting, not on the person receiving the warning. Before the first bait is laid, the person doing it must tell every neighbour inside one kilometre of the place the baits will be applied. The notice has to be given at least 3 days before the baits are laid. The Pesticide Control Order states the same rule for wild dog baits in its own words: no baits on any land unless a minimum of three days' notice of the date has been given, to the landholder or agent of any property within a kilometre of the baiting location.
The Order allows a telephone call, a text message, an email, a conversation in person, or mail, including a letter box drop. If the neighbours cannot be reached in any of those ways, or there are more than 25 of them, the notice may be an advertisement in a local newspaper instead. Where a program is ongoing rather than a single operation, the Order requires notification every six months. A householder who receives one of those messages is being told something the law requires, and it is worth keeping, because the notice names a date.
The signs are the other half. They have to go up before the baiting starts, and they stay in place for at least 4 weeks after the last day the baits are used. The Order adds that they must remain intact and legible for that whole period.
Who is authorised, and what for
1080 is not a household product, and the Order is precise about who may hold it. The Order names the only people who may hold or use the 1080 liquid concentrate: Authorised Control Officers. Such an officer can mix bait for wild dogs, foxes, feral pigs, rabbits and any other species an APVMA permit names. The Order allows the baits themselves to be used only against wild dogs, foxes, feral pigs and rabbits.
The state's fox page records that the main poison used to control foxes is 1080, regulated under the Pesticides Act and the Pesticide Control Orders.
Two notices, side by side
Two different notice rules apply near a Shire house, and they are worth setting next to each other, because one is about a poison laid in the bush and the other about a pesticide used outdoors beside a sensitive place. Both come from NSW law, and neither is a courtesy: each is a duty with a distance and a period attached.
| The duty | 1080 baiting on the far side of the fence | A pesticide sprayed outdoors, or injected into the ground outdoors, within 20 metres of a sensitive place |
|---|---|---|
| Who gives the notice | The person laying the baits | The person carrying out the fumigation or pest management technician work, to the person responsible for the sensitive place |
| How far it reaches | Every property whose boundary lies within 1 kilometre of the baits | Within 20 metres of a sensitive place, for spraying outdoors or injecting into the ground outdoors, which is how a school or childcare centre next door qualifies |
| How much warning | At least 3 days before the baits are laid | At least 5 working days before the pesticide is used |
| What is left behind | Signs, in place for at least 4 weeks after the last day baits are used | A record of the application, made within 48 hours of use and kept for 3 years |
One more difference is worth naming. The sensitive-place notice comes from the Pesticides Regulation 2017, and under its sensitive-place rule no notice is required where no sensitive place adjoins the property (the common areas of a unit block carry a notice rule of their own). The 1080 notice does not depend on who lives next door. It depends on the property boundary and the kilometre, and it is owed to the landholder, or their authorised agent, of each property inside that distance.
Dogs and cats, and the reason the warning matters
The Order does not leave the danger to be inferred. In its conditions for wild dog baits, the Order states that 1080 is particularly lethal to domestic dogs, and says the person laying the baits should recommend that notified neighbours restrain their pets and working dogs, keep them out of the baiting location during the operation, or muzzle a dog that has to work that ground. The same Order forbids placing 1080 wild dog baits anywhere accessible to children, domestic animals or pets.
The parks service's alert for Towra Point Nature Reserve names cats as well as dogs, and states it plainly: domestic pets are not permitted in NSW national parks and reserves, and pets and working dogs may be affected, because 1080 is lethal to cats and dogs. The same alert says pets and working dogs must be restrained or muzzled in the vicinity and must not enter the baiting location, and it carries the line for what follows an accident in the parks service's own words: "In the event of accidental poisoning seek immediate veterinary assistance." It also warns visitors not to touch baits or ejector devices, and records that all baiting locations are identifiable by signs.
The alert also sets out what the parks service is doing on its side of the line: it announces a baiting program using manufactured baits, fresh baits and ejector devices containing 1080 poison for the control of foxes in Towra Point Nature Reserve, and it gives the reason such programs run at all, which is reducing the impact of foxes on threatened species. An operation's live dates are not printed here, because they expire; the alerts page carries what is current. The alert also says how to ask about a program: the local park office for the Sydney South Area answers on 02 9337 5511 in business hours, and the NPWS after-hours call centre on 1300 056 294.
What the program is for
The animal on the other side of the notice is the fox, and the state's own pages set out why it is controlled. Foxes are a widespread non-native pest in NSW that affect the economy, the community and the environment, and they play a significant part in the decline of native wildlife, including rock wallabies, numbats and bird species, as well as carrying diseases such as mange and tapeworm. The Greater Sydney plan records coordinated control programs running in autumn and spring, timed to the animals' breeding patterns and to the dispersal of young foxes.
Deer are the second animal this ground shares, and the plan records them in the Sutherland LGA among the local government areas where feral deer are moderately distributed. The parks service closes some areas of the Royal National Park, the Heathcote National Park and the Garawarra State Conservation Area to the public between sunset and sunrise on scheduled nights, so that deer control operations can be carried out. The current schedule is on the Royal National Park alerts page, linked at the foot of this guide.