It’s a dog catcher’s life

Hunting wild dogs on remote Western Australian cattle stations is how Jim Miller makes a living.

Story & photos by John Denman

The subject of wild dogs is a contentious issue in Australia. On one side are those who admire and respect Australia’s wild dogs, on the other side are those who would rather see them all dead. Somewhere in the middle of the issue are the doggers: people whose job it is to control the dingoes and feral dogs.
Jim Miller is a dogger who is based on Williambury Station in the Northern Gascoyne area of Western Australia. He has taken on the job of trying to outsmart an animal that is ranked by its admirers and its detractors as both cunning and smart. “You have to respect them,” Jim says. “They inhabit some of the wildest and remote country anywhere, and they know it better than I do.”