Dog Fence Crossing Ooldea Road - SA

The Dingo Fence or Dog Fence is a long fence that stretches from Jimbour on the Darling Downs near Dalby through thousands of kilometers of arid land ending west of Eyre peninsula on cliffs of the Nullarbor Plain. The fence was built in the early 1900's to keep dingoes or wild dogs out of the relatively fertile south-east part of the continent where sheep and cattle graze. At 5,614 kilometers, it is one of the longest structures in the world and the world's longest fence.

The fence was originally built in the 1880’s by State governments, initially to stop the spread of the rabbit plague across State borders. This proved to be a wasted effort and the fences fell into disrepair until the early 1900s when they were repaired in order to keep the dingoes out and protect the sheep flocks. In 1930, an estimated 32,000 km of dog netting in Queensland alone was being used on top of rabbit fences. In the 1940’s, the fences were joined together to form one continuous structure, which was recorded as the longest fence in the world. Until 1980, the fence was 8,614 kilometers long, but was then shortened to 5,614 kilometers.