“Come down and stick your greenie nose in our area and see what happens – I shoot what I want! Including stinking eagles.”

“Bet your Toorak tracktor has not gone past the local shops. We watch foxes, wild dogs and eagles take young baby lambs at a rate over the last ten yrs, you wouldn’t even know. Nobody in Dan’s Labour party gives a fk. Fine us farmers - good luck!

“What would a Labour voting greenie from Hurstbridge living in a McMansion know about us 5th generation farmers in Gippsland,” the handwritten note read.

The letter to Steven after dozens of dead eagles were found in East Gippsland.

The Melburnian, who grew up in rural Tasmania, had written of his upset and anger on hearing that 136 wedge-tailed eagles had been found dead on a property in far-east Victoria. He was not expecting this feedback.

On a yellowing piece of paper was a message in neat, black capital letters, under a copy of a letter to the editor that Steven had written to a local newspaper.

On a cool July morning this year, Steven opened the mail at his home in Melbourne’s north-east.

Yet farmers’ organisations, while also condemning the practice, say the issue is not clear-cut.

Eagle experts say that, while the most recent incident is shocking, the practice itself is neither new nor limited to Victoria. They worry it could have national consequences for the species if action isn’t taken.

But the discovery of the eagles has had ramifications far beyond Tubbut.

The department has stressed that the investigation is ongoing and more legal proceedings could be on the horizon.

He was sentenced to 14 days in jail and fined $2500 with a conviction. It was the first ever custodial sentence for destruction of protected wildlife in Victoria.

This week in the Sale Magistrates Court, Murray James Silvester, 59, pleaded and was found guilty of causing the death of 420 wedge-tailed eagles through the use of bait impregnated with poison between October 2016 and April this year.

It was short, sharp and characteristic of a debate that has resurfaced since June, when the Environment Department discovered scores of wedge-tailed eagle carcasses on a remote property in Tubbut, a tiny rural community in East Gippsland near the Snowy River National Park.

But around Tubbut, there were many who weren’t surprised.

“We understand people are outraged by this crime … Be assured we are taking all steps we can to investigate this thoroughly,” said Mr Bruce.

“Investigators believe the number killed was significantly higher than seized,” said Ian Bruce from the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning after they found 136 birds in May.

The carcasses were hidden in bush and scrub, scattered across the vast property and concealed under vegetation, making it almost impossible to estimate exactly how many eagles were killed.

It took three days, dozens of officers from the Environment Department, two motorbikes and several four-wheel-drives to thoroughly search the 2000-hectare Tubbut property to find the dead birds.

A police officer holds the remains of one of the birds after 136 carcasses were found. Credit:Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning

“We need them to be there. They are working for us all the time.”

“All the top-order predators, sharks in the oceans, they are really important for the jobs that they do, which we don't always appreciate, but we would certainly notice if they weren't there.

“They are really important to the ecosystem,” says Healesville Sanctuary keeper James Goodridge, citing the eagles' ability to clean up dead and dying animals as vital to a healthy environment.

Successive studies have since found that, while eagles are capable of killing lambs, it’s rare for them to do so. They mainly feed on rabbits and carrion, as well as lizards, possums, foxes and feral cats.

Pictures from that time show the birds – which can weigh up to five kilograms – strung on fences and hung from trees, killed by farmers convinced that the native predators were taking their livestock.

Though the wedge-tailed eagle is now protected by state legislation, some researchers estimate that more than 300,000 were killed Australia-wide in the decades before the late-1960s when some states offered bounties for carcasses.

“Eagles are special to me because, I suppose, I look at it through an old falconry point of view,” says Goodridge.

They can also carry prey weighing up to five kilograms through the air, attacking with a fast swooping motion that often kills their target instantly. When hunting in groups, they can kill a kangaroo. Their eyesight is eight times sharper than humans.

With a wingspan that can reach up to 2.5 metres, wedge-tailed eagles are able to soar, particularly on warm winds, as high as two kilometres from the ground, and for up to 90 minutes in one flight.

“A thousand years ago, kings and royals would have birds like this and it was a way of remaining really humble in yourself – you have the majestic animals which are so much better than we are – they can fly, see things so much further away.”

"It makes me feel quite humble to be in the presence of an animal like this.”

The birds have special significance for the Indigenous Kulin people of central Victoria, with Bunjil, a wedge-tailed eagle, one of the creator ancestors of the land.

Despite studies finding that the overall threat eagles pose to farming communities is negligible, environmental advocates say the belief has barely shifted in some farming communities.

University of New England professor and leading raptor expert Steve Debus grew up in farming communities in the NSW Riverina, and remembers seeing eagles strung from fences.

“They have been accused of killing lambs. They’d be capable of killing them, but a lot of the time they are seen scavenging on a dead one and farmers jump to conclusions,” he said.

“There is the drought and all sorts of other things that cause lamb deaths. It’s a combination of things. With farmers under stress - and maybe the economics have changed - there’s clearly a need for current research on the problem, and on eagle populations.”

John Hermans, president of the Gippsland Environmental Group, says the killing of eagles is “fairly widespread”.

“Traditionally, farmers have done that sort of thing in their ignorance and they don’t realise the eagles aren’t all that much of a problem to them. It’s dogs and foxes.

“They are not just knocking out the eagles in one locality, they are sucking them out of a much broader landscape. Because eagles fly so far and travel so widely, to kill over 100 would be to reduce the number of eagles across a broad range of Australia.

“I live in Bairnsdale, and I’d be lucky to see a wedge-tail once a month. They have significantly reduced.”

Dead wedge-tailed eagles in a picture which appeared in The Age Literary Review on May 28, 1966.

Roger Bilney was at the start of his career when he joined the environment department in Victoria in 1973. He spent two decades working for the organisation before becoming the chief ranger in Queensland with responsibility for wildlife protection for more than two and a half years and then returning to Gippsland.

He has been researching eagles for four years, looking at sea eagles on the Gippsland Lakes, and is a founding member of the Australian Raptors Association.

And while he recognises the recent headline-grabbing incidents in Victoria have dominated discussion, he says the problem extends far beyond Tubbut.

“It’s going on everywhere,” he said. “I was an officer in the area for 20 years. Tubbut is not on its own.

“It’s not all necessarily one-sided because eagles are very capable of killing ... even significant-sized sheep. Even sea eagles are causing problems in some areas. I don’t know if it's a lack of prey,” he said.

Bilney also says the resurgence of the wool industry means the practice will continue and probably get worse unless something is done.

“The biggest worry is that sheep are on the increase and there is a significant return for wool and lambs, so they see eagles in the paddock and see they might be about to lose $2000 a month and take action. You’ve still got the old school who will shoot because they can when there is a drought on, the sheep have low energy and lambs are dying due to a lack of energy and that will be exacerbating the problem.”

Four properties in Tubbut and Orbost in East Gippsland were raided by DELWP in June, uncovering more remains. Credit:DELWP

Environment Department officials say that since 2007 there have been 20 to 30 reports of alleged poisoning, trapping and destruction of wedge-tailed eagles in Victoria.

The department was unable to pinpoint eagle-specific cases, but say in the last decade they have successfully sanctioned 100 people for unlawful destruction of wildlife. They say there does not appear to be a rise in reports of wedge-tailed eagle deaths in the state.

But Bilney is worried that if something isn’t done urgently - and nationally - the result could be disastrous for the species.

“If you’re having hundreds of birds taken out every year on the eastern seaboard, and WA, and SA, then yes you’re having an enormous effect,” he said.

“We are not talking hundreds, we are talking thousands each year. Can the population withstand it? I say it can’t, but we don’t know.”

A wedge-tail in profile. Credit:Shutterstock

The official farming body for Victoria has condemned the mass killing in East Gippsland, as well as the practice generally.

But they’ve also called on both sides of the conversation to listen to lived experience rather than dismiss it.

“First of all, we don’t want to see anyone breaking the law,” Victorian Farmers Federation president David Jochinke says.

“Secondly, with the numbers we saw at Tubbut and the huge impact on the population, it does open the discussion about if you are impacted by an introduced or native species. How do we manage that as a community? Are people compensated if they are losing lambs? How do we have a coexistence?”

A possibility touted by the federation is to compensate farmers who lose lambs to eagles.

There are also permits in Victoria that allow for farmers to kill birds of prey if they are threatening livestock but it is rare for the department to issue them and none have been issued in the past nine years.

It's understood that two permits were issued in 2009 in the Hume region, near Yea north-east of Melbourne, for a total of five eagles, and in 2015 a “scare only” permit was issued in Swan Hill.

“We need a more mature discussion rather than everyone going to corners and saying 'you can’t do that',” Jochinke says. “We need to look at solutions.”

He said there needed to be a better understanding of how the birds operate, urging increased research for a solution which doesn’t affect the total population.

“I understand it can be polarising and I do empathise ... As farmers, I like to think we are good stewards. We do need to have a broader discussion about how we do it with this issue.

“If we don’t look after the environment, it doesn’t look after us. The time is right to have mature people around to have that discussion.”

An eagle dead on a property in Tubbut, East Gippsland. Credit:Facebook

At the 2016 census, Tubbut registered a population of 11. People know their neighbours.

Recent events have seen many in the community fall silent, as anxiety ripples through the area. As one local put it: “Entire families, friendships and communities could be torn apart over it.”

In a statement to The Age, an Environment Department spokesperson said it could not comment while investigations were still ongoing, but underscored the illegality of killing the birds.

“Wedge-tailed eagles are protected under the Wildlife Act 1975 and anyone living or working in the proximity of these birds should be aware that it is categorically unacceptable to destroy them without the appropriate authorisation,” a spokesman said.

With potential jail time and thousands of dollars in fines in play, recent events have highlighted a need for change.

“The state and federal government should step in and look at significant research,” says Bilney.

“The research we are quoting goes back to the '60s and early '70s. A lot has changed. We need to look more at a national level rather than state level.

“That's where I think farmers have to accept what may really be going on, and bird lovers have to accept more might be at play than disgruntled farmers.

“It was considered the most persecuted bird in the world at the time it was protected in the early '70s. Even people who don’t like them still look up and admire them. It would be a shame if we lost that.”

Reports of any suspected illegal activity regarding wedge-tailed eagles can be made to the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning contact centre on 136 186 or to Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.