THE sheep industry is alive again.

A private and government funded fencing scheme has seen the negative impacts of wild dogs thwarted in areas of central Queensland.

Identifying the need to provide greater protection for sheep, the Remote Area Planning and Development Board (RAPAD) has noticed a steep increase in jobs, sheep and production since the inception of the plan.

RAPAD statistics indicate that before the fencing, wild dogs were costing the local economy millions.

In a 12 month period, wild dogs cost a cluster $1.4million, with the total lambs reduced by over 11,000 (a percentage reduction from 80 to 30).

Another cluster's lambing rates were reduced from 70 to 15 per cent, costing them almost $600,000 per year.

The fencing project has had a number of long term goals.

Providing further jobs in the industry and increasing the profitability in regional businesses are a key pair.

Putting in place industry infrastructure that can be used for decades to come is another aim of the project.

Since the introduction of fencing, regional Queensland has witnessed a large spike.

Sheep numbers have risen from 373,358 to 735,966, almost double the total.

This has resulted in an increase to sheep variable labour required to $8.8million, a gain in over $4.3million.

An additional 70 jobs have been created, and the increased regional gross has climbed from $21.6million to just under $35.3million.

The total government expenditure of the fencing cost $6.95million, with the regional benefit totalling $22.7million, which equals $3.28 per dollar of government spending.

Barrier fences are prevalent in the Darling Downs region currently, with current protection running from Millmerran through to the border, south of Killarney.

Feral Dog Scan, another government initiative, has reported sightings of over 13 live dogs in Warwick since February this year.

RAPAD CEO David Arnold said initial reports showed that the fencing is working to effect.

"It has been a great program to date,” Mr Arnold said.

"There is a concurrent monitoring and evaluation program running alongside it, and the preliminary report has given us information that it is a significant return on investment.

"It is a joint funded effort between the government and graziers, and both have poured a lot of money into this, so it is great to see positive results to date.”

Mr Arnold said the final decision for fencing was made after extensive consultation with various parties.

"This problem has gone back quite a few years,” he said.

"It's a well captured story, and there has been growth in the prevalence of wild dogs over the last decade, which has decimated the sheep industry in the central west.

"Discussion has been going around for close to two years on the different forms of fencing, and it was settled on a cluster form.

"Once the fences have gone up, we've seen results in the first 12 months, which is great for graziers.

"It's been a remarkable turnaround considering the drought conditions, and results will be exponential when we finally get a good season.”