Wagin Shire president Phillip Blight says live sheep export ban has made Bart the Giant Ram a ‘relic’

Wagin’s shire president Phillip Blight has lashed the Federal Government’s live sheep export ban, which he says has turned the town’s iconic giant ram Bart into a “relic of a past era”. Cr Blight spoke out against the forthcoming ban, set to come into effect on May 1, 2028, lamenting the changing significance of the seven-metre-tall sculpture, which he said once proudly represented Wagin’s thriving sheep industry. “This area is very heavy in sheep and used to be even more so, but progressive political interference has made sheep farming even more marginal over the years,” he said. “Despite all the facts, all the science and the hard work the industry has put in, a backroom shady preference deal has killed the industry.” The Wagin Agricultural Society, which hosts the popular annual Wagin Woolorama event, also weighed in on the matter, imploring Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt to reverse the decision in a letter. “Your government talks itself up by introducing such wonders as promoting Australian-made industries and yet you have with a single blow decimated a viable, productive, and highly sort after (sic) Australian-made commodity,” the letter read. “(We) proudly support the entire agricultural sector, which includes every country town in the State and insists (sic) that you reverse this misinformed decision to end our live sheep export industry.” Wagin is home to about 1.64 million sheep and lambs, making it the third-biggest sheep-producing region in Australia (ABS 2021). Though Bart’s future is not under threat, what he represents may change as the industry declines, Cr Blight said. “There are no immediate plans to take him down, but it does trigger a thought process of the long-term future of an industry icon,” he said. “The tourist potential is always there but if we can’t explain that he represents a vibrant industry, it’s more a museum relic of the past. “We are pretty disappointed and no matter what (the Federal Government) say to the press about consultation, we know for a fact that we weren’t included in that.”