Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify that the outcomes discussed, following the installation of an exclusion fence on Goolburra Station, are the interpretation of the Webster family and have not been studied scientifically. A direct quote suggesting that kangaroos cause drought has been removed from the story. The article also acknowledges that both livestock and kangaroos are known to put pressure on landscapes and vegetation, particularly during droughts.

A Queensland grazier says a photo showing vegetation on either side of a kangaroo exclusion fence is proof of the damage kangaroos are doing to drought-affected pastoral land.

Graziers say Australia's kangaroos were a major source of heartache last year, with kangaroos competing with sheep and cattle for food.

Fencing kangaroos out is expensive and time-consuming, but Wyandra grazier Jenny Webster said she believes she has photographic proof of how valuable it can be.

Her husband built a 35km kangaroo-proof fence around more than 6,000 hectares of Goolburra Station, 80km north of Cunnamulla, after their pastures were devastated by kangaroos after the 2013 wet season.

Mrs Webster said she had gone for a drive after some rain expecting to see new growth around the property. She said what she saw shocked her and was the catalyst for the investment in an exclusion fence.

"We didn't realise we were having an issue with kangaroos, all we saw was kangaroos," she said.

"And I don't mean hundreds of kangaroos, I mean thousands of kangaroos.

"There was absolutely not a blade of grass to be seen, and that really motivated my husband and I to think there has got to be another way around this."

Fence network on neighbouring properties

A poor wet season in 2014-15 made it difficult for the Websters to see if their new fence was having an effect.

A ute on Goolburra Station in western Queensland with kangaroo droppings in the foreground. ( Supplied: Jenny Webster )

They were back to running 100 head of cattle on 8,000 hectares of land, a figure they said was still difficult to maintain with the number of kangaroos foraging for the same food.

Mrs Webster said the difference, after rain at the beginning of this year, between the paddock exposed to kangaroos and the side protected by the fence was "immeasurable".

"It's the first time since we've built the fence that we had any follow-up rain at all," she said.

"The boundary on the opposite side of the fence is completely bare as a board and ours had a nice little shoot of green.

"It wasn't a forest of green, it wasn't a paddock of green, but it was green and it was growing and there were no ferals around.

"Kangaroos eat 70 per cent of the feed so if you can take them out, within two to three years you can double your income."

Mrs Webster said there are currently no cattle on her neighbour's property as a result of the drought. She said the bare ground to the right of the fence was not trafficked regularly because of its distance from the neighbour's homestead, and that the fenceline had not been graded since March 2014.

The fence was built specifically to keep kangaroos at bay, and is now part of a cluster with other fences on neighbouring properties.

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Large areas of the Websters' rougher country and channel country cannot be fenced to keep kangaroos out.

Mrs Webster said she did not want to remove all of the kangaroos from Goolburra, but wanted to see fewer of them nibbling on new Buffell and Mitchell grasses finally sprouting up on her land.

"They do so much damage to the pastures that it takes years to restore it, unless you get really good rain all the time and that just doesn't happen in our country," she said.

"We all like kangaroos and all want to have a few kangaroos, we just don't like a few hundred thousand kangaroos."

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) acknowledged in a 2010 report on the Australian environment, that both livestock and kangaroos can put pressure on vegetation cover and soils.

The ABS report said cattle and sheep grazing account for half of all land use in Australia and is associated with a number of environmental issues including soil loss, particularly in arid or semi-arid areas and during droughts.

The report also said grazing pressure comes from feral and native animals such as goats, camels, rabbits and kangaroos.

The ABS reports that an increase in pasture and the number of watering points on farm properties, and a reduction in dingoes, may have helped some species of kangaroos to increase in numbers in some areas.