The possum is protected. The fox is a pest. The law draws the line
In New South Wales it is illegal to relocate or kill a possum and to trap or catch and release one without a licence, because possums are protected under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016. A pest animal, in the region's own plan, is any species other than a native one that presents a biosecurity risk. Two different laws, one line, and the animal in your roof or your yard falls on one side of it or the other.
The rules on this page are the NSW Environment and Heritage department's, the state's biosecurity pages, the region's pest animal plan and Central Coast Council's own pages, all linked in the footer.
The possum in the roof
The department's sentence is even flatter: it is illegal to relocate or kill a possum and to trap or catch and release them without a licence. It also records that it is possible to rehouse a possum without needing to apply for a licence and trap it. Rehousing, in its words, means a new home away from the roof but nearby, ideally in a tree in your garden.
The department does encourage a householder to try the steps that move a possum out of a roof and stop new ones moving in, and it offers a route if those steps are exhausted: an application for permission to remove possums, by way of a landholder's licence to harm protected native animals.
The other route is a service. If the removal steps and the prevention methods have been tried without success and a householder does not want to remove the possum themselves, the department records that a professional licensed catch and release possum operator can be hired to do it, for a fee.
Those operators are licensed by the department's Biodiversity and Heritage Regulator, through the catch and release licence application. The department's advice to a householder is to ask whether the individual or company hired to remove possums holds a current catch and release licence, because it is illegal to remove and relocate a possum without one.
The animals on the other side of the line
The other law starts from a different premise: all land owners and occupiers are responsible for managing pest animals on their land.
| Animal | What the state records |
|---|---|
| Red fox | The European red fox is listed as a Priority Pest Animal in NSW, and the biosecurity risks and impacts it poses are regulated under Part 3 of the Biosecurity Act 2015. As a landholder, a person is responsible for controlling foxes on their property as part of their General Biosecurity Duty. Predation by the European red fox is also listed as a Key Threatening Process in Schedule 4 of the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016. |
| Wild rabbit | The region's pest animal plan, whose area includes the Central Coast, records wild rabbits as widely distributed and well established throughout the region, including in highly urbanised areas. The department records that trapping is not treated as an effective or efficient way to control rabbits, though it is sometimes used where a small, isolated population is the problem. |
| Common myna | The myna's protection status is recorded in one line: unprotected, an introduced species. It is a common inhabitant of urban areas. The department records that roosting and nesting close to people create aesthetic and health concerns, and that mynas are carriers of avian malaria and of exotic parasites, among them a mite that can cause dermatitis in people. |
| Feral deer | The plan records feral deer as moderately distributed throughout the Greater Sydney region, naming the Central Coast among the local government areas. |
For rabbits, the department is cautious about traps. The department records that a trap can cause real injury, suffering and distress, so it should be the last resort rather than the first. It also records that a trapped rabbit should not be left in the trap any longer than necessary, that the traps are to be checked every day, early in the morning preferably, and left open through the day.
The department is direct about what follows: a rabbit caught alive in a trap has to be killed humanely as soon as possible after capture.
What is being done on this coast, and who to tell
Central Coast Council runs its own program in the reserves it manages, and that program runs in the Council's priority natural reserves from 25 September until 30 June 2027.
Greater Sydney Local Land Services runs an integrated program for wild dogs and foxes on the Central Coast, and the Council records that it includes 1080 ground baits for both, and Canid Pest Ejectors; the National Parks and Wildlife Service runs its own fox and wild dog programs in local national parks, 1080 poison baiting among them.
For anything to do with the Council's fox control program, its enquiries line is 4306 7900.
The rabbits have a program of their own. The Council takes part in periodic releases of the Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease Virus, led by Greater Sydney Local Land Services, and on the Central Coast the 2026 release of RHDV1-K5 happened at seven locations, places where rabbits had been reported again and again to be affecting the environment and the community. The Council records that the virus works on one species only, rabbits, and poses no risk to pets other than rabbits, or to native wildlife.
That matters to one household in particular: the Council tells the community about planned releases, and it encourages owners of pet rabbits to talk to their veterinarian about vaccination before a release. For information on the release program, the number is (02) 4724 2100, at Greater Sydney Local Land Services.
The case for all of it is on the Council's own pages, and it is blunt: the rabbit is the country's most destructive agricultural pest, competing severely for pasture and driving erosion and land degradation, and it is also recognised as a key threat to native animals, plants and endangered ecological communities.
The two laws, side by side
When something is living where it should not be, this is the comparison to make.
| A possum | A pest animal | |
|---|---|---|
| The law | The Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 protects it. | The Biosecurity Act 2015 regulates the risks it poses, with priority species under Part 3. |
| The duty on you | Do not relocate, kill or trap it without a licence. | As a landholder it is your General Biosecurity Duty to control priority pest animals on your land, using a combination of control methods. |
| The way through | Try the removal and prevention steps first; then either a landholder's licence to harm protected native animals, or a licensed catch and release operator. | Use a combination of control methods that reduce the impact and population of vertebrate pest animals on your land, and work with neighbours for a better result. |
| Before you act | Ask the operator for a current catch and release licence. | Seek advice from Local Land Services before proceeding with a control plan. |
What the two sides share
The general biosecurity duty under the Biosecurity Act 2015 requires that anyone who knows, or ought reasonably to know, about a biosecurity risk has a duty to prevent, eliminate or minimise that risk as far as is reasonably practicable. The region's plan puts the same point on individuals: it is the responsibility of individuals to ensure they discharge that duty.
For the fox, the state's rule is about keeping as much as catching: under the Biosecurity Regulation 2017, European red foxes must not be kept or moved unless appropriately authorised, and a captive fox must not be released.
Where a sighting goes
The region's species list lives in the plan: Central Coast Council records that Greater Sydney's Regional Strategic Pest Animal Management Strategy 2024-2028 names the region's priority pest species and lays out the control and management actions a landowner can take to meet the duty.
The Council's own line on the duty is short: whoever owns a property is responsible for managing declared pest animals, rabbits, foxes and wild dogs among them.
For advice on a control method, the Council points to the Greater Sydney Local Land Service. For an unusual animal, or a disease that may be a pest species, the route is the NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development's report a pest or disease line on 1800 680 244. Sightings themselves go to a place made for them: the FeralScan app records them, and the Council notes that the sightings the community records are useful data for researchers and help inform where control resources are allocated.
For a control plan, the body the state's pages name for advice is Local Land Services, and the fox pages give its contact line as 1300 795 299.
On the principle behind the whole system, the state's position is that the most effective method of controlling pest animals across NSW landscapes is coordinated group control, conducted in a way that reduces the negative impacts of the pests while using the most humane, target-specific and effective techniques available.
This guide stops at the law, the licences and the local programs, which is where a householder's decision starts. It gives no method for killing or moving an animal. A possum can be moved out of a roof into a new home close by, ideally a tree in the garden, without a licence; relocating or killing one, or trapping it or catching and releasing it, needs a licence, and on the other side of the line the work is a plan and a control program rather than a Saturday afternoon.