Movie
On the Fence
Cultural messages
Nature Knows Best
highThe film portrays dingoes and intact ecosystems as inherently wise and self-regulating, explicitly contrasting natural order with destructive human management practices (1080 poison, trapping, shooting). First Nations peoples (Worimi Country, K'gari) are included as voices of coexistence and ecological knowledge, satisfying the indigenous-wisdom signal. Diverse wilderness landscapes are idealized through the film's locations. Most directly, maintaining intact dingo pack structures is presented as the natural solution that outperforms lethal control methods — a native apex predator managing invasive species (feral cats, foxes, rabbits, pigs) better than any human intervention. The film frames coexistence with nature as the morally and ecologically superior path versus modern agricultural pest-control approaches.
About this message: The natural world, indigenous peoples, or pre-industrial life is portrayed as inherently wise, pure, morally superior, or spiritually richer than modern civilization. Nature is a source of truth that technology has replaced.
Movies that share these tropes
Full plot (spoilers)
On the Fence is a 2026 Australian feature documentary directed by Harry Vincent that uses the Dingo Fence — a structure built in the 1860s and stretching more than 5,600 kilometres across the continent — as a narrative backbone to examine one of the country's longest-running and most contentious ecological debates. The fence was originally constructed to keep dingoes out of southeastern sheep-grazing country, and the film explores how it has since become a physical symbol of the divide between two entrenched positions: graziers whose livelihoods depend on protecting livestock from predation, and scientists and conservationists who argue that the dingo, as a native apex predator, is essential to healthy ecosystems. The documentary brings together voices from all sides of the debate — pastoralists, ecologists, First Nations peoples, and advocates — traversing filming locations that range from alpine regions of NSW and Victoria to tropical rainforests, deserts, and coastal areas including K'gari (Fraser Island) and Worimi Country. It documents dingo ecology in detail, presenting the animals as 'ecosystem engineers' that keep populations of invasive species — feral cats, foxes, rabbits, and pigs — in check and prevent overgrazing. The film also investigates the treatment of dingoes, including the use of 1080 poison baiting, trapping, shooting, and the practice of hanging dingo carcasses in trees. It examines how language has been weaponised against the species, including the deliberate rebranding of dingoes as 'wild dogs' to strip them of their native status and thus their protections. Specific stories and subjects featured include Alex Vince of the Coalition Against 1080 Poison, who helped ban 1080 in Blue Mountains National Park; a female dingo named Wori, documented on Worimi Country; and populations of alpine dingoes and K'gari dingoes. The film draws an explicit parallel to the extinction of the Thylacine, warning that Australia risks repeating the same mistake with another apex predator. Rather than adjudicating a winner in the livestock-versus-predator argument, the documentary poses a broader cultural question: are Australians willing to learn from the past and choose coexistence with apex predators? The director argues that maintaining intact dingo pack structures actually reduces livestock conflicts, reframing conservation not as an obstacle to farming but as compatible with it.
Sources: onthefencefilm.com.au/about, intrepidworld.net (director interview), web search (multiple aggregated results)