A group of landholders are communicating with police, the Gaming Council and National Parks and Wildlife officers via Facebook to stamp out hunting and theft offences in the area.

The group was formed late last year and they communicate through a private group formed on Facebook but face-to-face meetings are held from time to time.

It’s part of the Oxley Local Area Command Project Eyewatch program, and area project manager Inspector Paul Johnson said it’s already a success.

“It’s rolling along and one would hope as time goes by we will get some benefit.

“It’s about cross-agency communication and it’s something that will flow along, so we get some information and try and target hoodlums and people doing the wrong thing.

“We want to make the communities of rural and remote areas feel safer through this communication.”

Inspector Johnson said the group was created after a spate of trespassing and hunting incidents in the Tambar Springs and Primer areas last year.

He said the issue was predominantly young people in four-wheel-drives with hunting dogs.

“It impacts not only on farming industries and cropping, but national parks and the gaming council as well,” he said.

“There has been some success by way of a number of strategies implemented, not only by the people involved in that group, but strategies from within National Parks and Wildlife through the use of cameras in the the forestry areas.”