Australia is home to a unique and diverse ecology: its wildlife is a key attraction to overseas visitors and it is recognised internationally for its iconic marsupials and monotremes. But uniqueness is a source of ecological vulnerability and Australia now has the second highest ranking of threatened animal species in the world. European settlement and the subsequent destruction of habitat through land-clearing and agricultural practices dramatically altered the environment for many Australian animals, promoting numerous extinctions. Introduced animals quickly became established in most of the Australian landscape with devastating consequences. There are now at least 73 species of introduced (invasive) vertebrates living wild in Australia, including 25 mammal, 20 bird and 23 freshwater fish species. Some native species (eg kangaroos and parrots), have also increased in range and abundance and are now regarded as 'pests' or 'unwanted animals'. Controlling the impacts of unwanted animals is a significant activity for land managers. A wide range of physical, biological, chemical, lethal and non-lethal methods are used which vary greatly in their humaneness. Animal welfare must compete with other factors such as cost, efficacy, target specificity and practicality in formulating management plans. Ensuring that control is both justified and humane requires a new, long-term perspective. It involves changing attitudes towards invasive or overabundant animals as well as improving the humaneness of control techniques This review paper examines recent approaches to improving the strategic and humane control of unwanted wildlife in the Australian context. This includes the development of a framework for the integration of animal welfare considerations into the management of unwanted wildlife, reviews of the humaneness of specific control methods, research to find potential alternative techniques, and measures to assess the relative humaneness of control methods and to improve the application of control methods by identifying best practice.