Many different types of browsing animal like young tree seedlings. The main culprits were expected to be wallabies, rabbits, hares, and goats. Neighbouring properties do have cattle agistment, which is why we paid attention to improving the fences with those properties.
Little evidence had been seen of wallabies, rabbits and hares. The main known problem was potentially with goats, which had been seen on a neighbouring property, having wandered there from a property next to them. A series of letters and conversations with the owners of the goats saw them more securely contained, and they have not been a real problem. Nonetheless, the seedlings planted near the fencelines at the northern end of the property (where the browsing problem was expected to be the worst), were coated with an egg-based grit emulsion which is a deterrent to browsing for the first few months until the seedlings have had a chance to grow.
The only animals seen regularly on the property are kangaroos and wombats, but these pose little threat. The kangaroos tend to graze on the grass between the rows, and not browse on the trees. The wombats can do very localised damage to trees planted near their burrows, which are either walked on or sat on!
The main damage so far has been from deer, which have migrated from the nearby hills. They tend to rub on the trees to mark their territory, but in the process they either strip the bark or knock them over entirely. We simply left those trees to the deer, to let them know that we had left that territory to them (and also employed a licenced shooter). The damaged trees are now coppicing and growing strongly, but will be no good for sawlog trees becuase of the poor form in the coppiced growth.
