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Actual take for 2026 is the Nature Knowledge Channel’s forecast. Other numbers in red are estimates at the time of writing. For 2025 at time of writing, some states had not reported actual take for that year.

Percentage of actual take increases mainly because the quota is lower in a given year. For example, the 2021 quota for all Australia was 1,524,085 lower than the quota in 2020. What was particularly shocking was that for the quota alone, the reduction in the quota between those years was higher than the actual annual take in each year.

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States and Territories

• Shockingly, by late April 2026, Western Australia, and as shooting continued, had still not reported its commercial quota allocations for 2026, currently the figure given in the table is our estimate. Western Australia will provide its population estimates and quotas following their KMAC meeting, for which, as at time of writing, no date has been set.
• (Excluding Western Australia) The Queensland population estimates in 2026 accounts for 54.7 per cent of the Australian mainland population estimate. The Queensland commercial quota in 2026 accounts for 57 per cent of the Australian mainland quota. The questionable Queensland estimates play a significant role (they do this every year) in distorting Kangaroo estimates and resulting quotas.
• In 2026, Victoria is the only state to report an overall population increase over the previous year. Total nonsense of course. Victoria trialled the commercial exploitation of Kangaroos and Wallabies in the early 1980s but this was discontinued as it was considered at the time not to be viable.
• Tasmania is not required to report its commercial exploitation of Kangaroos and Wallabies in the same way that all other states do and hence is not included in the Australian Governments reporting on the commercial exploitation of Kangaroos. There should be no exception to the rules.
• The ACT and Northern Territory do not have a commercial wildlife trade in Kangaroo species.
• The 2026 population estimate on which the 2026 quota is derived and calculated, are from surveys conducted in 2025. Thus the 2025 population estimate that informed that year’s quota was calculated from surveys in 2024.
• The number of species and species being exploited commercially differ across the states. South Australia commercially exploits the most species, while Western Australia and Victoria exploit the least number of species, in the case of Western Australia that is the Red Kangaroo and the Western Grey Kangaroo and in Victoria it is the Eastern Grey Kangaroo and the Western Grey Kangaroo. The numbers given above are the totals for all species in the given state.

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South Australia

South Australia is worth a special mention, because of all mainland Australian states, it has the greatest sustained loss of its Macropod populations. with serial declines, year on year, for the last 30 years, due to over exploitation. Despite the claims of booming populations, a trip around South Australia tells a very different story.

Kangaroo Island Tammar Wallaby: While the species is listed on the commercial list in South Australia its population estimate appears significantly overstated at 87 animals per square kilometer across the entire island and the actual number exploited for commercial gain in 2025 (from the latest data we have) is zero. This adds to the already inflated population estimates in the state and adds to the misconception that the total commercial take of all species in South Australia, as a percentage of population is low, and hence is sustainable.

The South Australian Government's Kangaroo bounties introduced in 2025 will intensify harm to remaining Kangaroo populations in the state. The latest addition to the bounties towards year end being, and I quota the government here:

“A total of $350,000 is available for this initiative to provide incentives for primary producers, to remove starving Kangaroos. These incentives are the subject of these guidelines…. under this incentive, PIRSA is paying primary producers”.

This and more regulation to remove Kangaroo populations from the state, including public land, all going on at pace while the Inquiry into Kangaroo and Wallaby Populations in South Australia was underway. The inquiry has not been completed, and remains so, following the state’s March election.

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New South Wales update as of 9 May 2026

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2025: Actual commercial kill reported early May 2026

In 2025 the actual commercial kill was 634,087 (29 per cent of original quota) Kangaroos across all species and zones. In 2025 , there were no reduced or suspended quotas in any zone. The actual commercial kill in 2025 was higher than the earlier estimates which indicated that 545,000 Kangaroo would be killed for commercial gain. The original commercial quota for 2025 was 2,186,952 Kangaroos.

The 2025 commercial actual kill was higher than in 2024 when the kill (now adjusted from earlier reports) was 544,317 Kangaroos.

In 2025, the actual commercial kill by species was:

• Eastern Grey Kangaroo – 318,218
• Western Grey Kangaroo – 34,826
• Red Kangaroo – 268,810
• Wallaroo – 11,233

During 2025, commercial harvest licence conditions required that Kangaroo carcasses delivered to chillers for sale were not to weigh less than 14 kilograms dressed weight or less than 20 kilograms undressed weight. Before1 January 2008, the minimum carcass weights were 12 and 13 kilograms dressed and undressed, respectively. The New South Wales Government says:

“Data collected from shooter returns during 2025 indicate the average carcass weight across all species was 29.5 kilograms for males and 19.5 kilograms for females, higher than the long-term averages, likely to be becauseof the increase in minimum carcass weight requirements made to licence conditions. The New South Wales Government does not require licensees to record individual carcass weights”.

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2025: Harms permits (non-commercial) actual kill reported early May 2026

In 2025, licences to harm protected native animals were issued to kill 439,620 Kangaroos within the commercial shooting  zones, the majority of regions in which Kangaroos live (excluding national parks). Licensees who submitted reports by early May 2026, reported 187,220 Kangaroos were killed in 2025, these licences were to kill 321,917 (73 per cent of total harms) Kangaroos giving a shortfall of 134,697 animals. A number of licensees had not reported at the time of writing, with this group of licences authorising the killing of up to 117,703 Kangaroos.

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