'Dingoes were here first': the landowners who say letting 'wild dogs' live pays dividends

Some farmers see a vicious pest that should be shot on sight, others a native species that plays a vital role in Australia's ecosystem Read more of our Modern Outback series hereSign up for email notifications from our Modern Outback seriesBy their own admission, John Knight and Caroline Thomas are blow-ins to the cattle country in South Australia's far north. An Adelaide cardiac surgeon and a clinical researcher respectively, they bought Evelyn Downs, a cattle station near the Painted Desert about 150km north of Coober Pedy, in 2006 and moved north a decade later.From the outset, they took a different approach to many of their neighbours to what locals call "the dogs". Where some farmers saw a pest and threat that should be shot on sight, Knight and Thomas saw a native species that had been part of the ecosystem for millennia and had as much right to be there as anyone else. Continue reading...