HUNTING ABOUT
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
In an interview on ABC 774 Radio on June 12, Victorian Minister for Environment and Outdoor Recreation, Steve Dimopoulos, was interviewed by Drive program host Ali Moore about the Central Highlands and the ongoing concern about a change in land tenure.
The future of the Central Highlands has long been an issue, with campaigns against native timber harvesting, effectively using the stalking horse of a National Park as a means to an end. However, with the government ending native timber harvesting at the start of 2024, the argument for a National Park was effectively removed.
During the interview, the Minister made several positive comments regarding the government's position, such as “The government is not looking at creating new National Parks” and that the government has “no commitment to a National Park”.
The ADA has consistently advocated that the end of the native timber harvesting industry potentially creates an issue regarding land tenure. Pleasingly, during the interview, the Minister made additional comments on this stating that this is “an opportunity to redefine what was happening in this parcel of land now that native timber harvesting has ended” and that this is part of the role and reason for the creation of the Great Outdoors Taskforce.
Towards the end of the interview, the Minister also made an encouraging comment regarding public land that will be well-received by most, “Public lands in this state are for public use, and they (the public) should be able to benefit from them”.
While several processes are underway and a significant body of work is attached to them, these initial comments can be taken as positive.
The ADA will continue its advocacy efforts and looks forward to engaging with the Great Outdoors Taskforce to help shape the future use of public land for recreational deer hunters.
Researchers from Tel Aviv University have discovered, Quina Scrapers, a specialised stone tool used to butcher fallow deer, dating back 400,000 years. The scrapers featured sharped, scalloped edges to assist the ancient hunters in processing their harvest.
These became particularly important around 400,000 years ago when the region’s elephants disappeared due to a combination of environmental changes and hunting pressure. This forced a dietary change that made them adapt their hunting and butchering skills to smaller animals such as fallow deer.
The flint used to make these tools came from the Mountains of Samaria, about 20km east of Jaljulia and Qesem Cave. It’s suspected this area acted as a calving ground for fallow deer.
Evidence suggests that the Samarian Highlands was recognised by hunters for its importance of not only as the source of the flint for their tools, but also habitat for fallow deer.
Numerous bone remains of fallow deer have been found through the Samarian Highlands at archaeological sites, suggesting the region held cultural significance for hundreds of thousands of years, even being linked to biblical stories.
At the beginning of the 20 th century, fallow deer become extinct in the region, before being reintroduced around 30 years ago.
The study also highlights the important role wild fallow deer played in sustaining humans who lived in the Qesem caves and sustainably hunted the nearby area and the important cultural role fallow deer had in their society.
The full study can be found online by searching “Samarian Highlands hunting”.
The Governor of South Australia has recently made a proclamation, prohibiting the use of these devices to kill animals with only limited exemptions. This ban will take effect from 1 December 2024.
The proclamation means that it will be an offence under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 to use a bow or crossbow in South Australia to kill almost all animals.
A bow and arrow may still be used to fish for carp (only) in the River Murray in some circumstances, as is provided for by the Fisheries Management Act 2017.
The ban applies all other settings and hunting scenarios, and any person found to be in breach of this ban may face a fine of up to $1,000.
The ban does not restrict ownership of bows or crossbows and does not limit the recreational use of these devices – for example, target archery – outside of hunting.
The ban does not limit other lawful hunting opportunities, such as when using guns.
Full details of the ban, including answers to frequently asked questions, can be found on the department’s website at https://environment.sa.gov.au/bowhunting.
Matt Rogers sent in this great study of a wild red deer.
As part of Tasmania’s Wild Fallow Deer Management Plan, a control program using a mixture of aerial culling and ground shooting was run during May in The Walls of Jerusalem National Park.
The ground shooting program lasted for 13 days and comprised a blend of contractors and volunteers, including from the ADA.
During the program, lead-free ammunition was also used, and veterinarians involved stated that it met all animal welfare requirements.
The program resulted in around 1,000 deer being culled.
The ADA looks forward to continuing to work with the Tasmanian government to play an active role in wild fallow deer management in Tasmania and implementing the Tasmanian Wild Fallow Deer Strategy.
Have you ever been contacted and asked to provide information your recent hunting exploits? If you were, it is hoped that you didn’t assume that it was a nuisance call and hang up!
Selected game licence holders are contacted periodically on behalf of the GMA and asked whether they have hunted deer in the past three months, how many days they hunted, whether they shot animals and the details of any deer harvested.
The information obtained from these surveys is used to paint a picture of recreational deer hunting in Victoria – the magnitude of the hunting effort and the number, species and sex of deer harvested – all important indicators of the quality of the hunting experience and changes in the deer populations.
If you are contacted and asked to contribute to the survey it is important to be honest and as accurate as possible with your answers. For example, don’t inflate the number of deer that you shot over the survey period or mis-identify their sex.
Other points to keep in mind are that the surveys are specifically asking about recreational hunting, not culling done at night for a landowner, or if you hunt over hounds, your personal take, not that of the team.
If deer are to be properly managed as a valued game species in Victoria it is important that accurate information is obtained on harvest numbers – those shot by recreational hunters, those shot in government-funded control operations and those culled on private property at night. While recreational hunters can whinge about the sadly disjointed and ad-hoc state of deer management in Victoria and the lack of information available on non-recreational kill, we do have a role to play, and helping to make sure that the GMA hunter surveys are accurate is our responsibility.
Annual reports based on past surveys are published on the GMA website with that for 2023 scheduled to be released about when this magazine arrives in your letterbox. It will be well worth a read!
Member Tom Penders has let us know he has a pile of the old small format issues of Australian Deer dating from 1991 to 2014. If anyone would like them, please email editor@austdeer.asn.au First in, best dressed!
During May this year a further 306 deer were removed from 110,000 hectares of the Walls of Jerusalem National Park and surrounding conservation land. This brings the total number of deer removed from the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area to 1,017 since 2023.
An aerial program was supported by ground shooting by volunteers from the ADA and SSAA.
The number of deer killed was higher than the initial population estimate, which aligns with experience in other jurisdictions that have undertaken similar projects. Veterinarians involved in the program indicated that the lead-free ammunition used was effective and met all animal welfare requirements.
Under the Tasmanian Wild Fallow Deer Management Plan, which sets the policy direction to manage deer between 2022 and 2027, the objective for the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area is ‘no deer’.
The two-year project was supported by a $400,000 Australian Heritage Grant from the Federal Government plus additional financial and in-kind support from the Tasmanian Government.
CWD was first discovered in the 1960s in the western United States. It has now been detected in free-ranging deer in 29 states and three Canadian provinces and in captive deer facilities in 18 states and three provinces, a total of 30 states and four provinces. The disease has also been diagnosed in Finland, Norway, Sweden and South Korea.
It is caused by naturally occurring proteins, called prions, which mutate, creating holes in the brain tissue of infected animals. It is a proven death sentence to any infected deer including whitetail deer, mule deer, blacktail deer, elk and moose.
A considerable effort is being made in North America to research and understand this potentially herd-threatening disease including testing of hunter-shot deer. Every avenue is being explored in the hope of discovering a silver bullet that may help limit its impact. Fortunately, there is no evidence that the disease is transmissible to humans, unlike the similar ‘mad cow disease’ also caused by prion infection, which is transmissible to humans.
There is currently no evidence that CWD occurs in deer in Australia.
Since the tragic events at the World Heritage listed Port Arthur Penal Settlement, the historic site has undergone a profound refurbishment. Tasmanian ADA member John Toohey was walking the settlement grounds when he spotted a deer with its head up in a low hanging tree branch. It was a metal silhouette. Access was closed off so he couldn’t get close but there was a sign proclaiming “The Port Arthur Elk”. It was apparent that there had been a sambar stag in southern Tasmania in 1871!
His curiosity spiked, John turned up an article in The Mercury newspaper of December 24 1869 thanking a Mr Legge in the Queens Service in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) for the present of an elk being shipped via Melbourne to Mr Graves who was to hold it in trust for the use of the colony.
Initially it was intended to “…select Slopen Island (south-east of Hobart) as the depository of the elk on its arrival”. However, there was some debate as to whether the Queens Domain in Hobart was more suitable. No decision was reported but The Mercury of February 26, 1870, noted that the elk “… are domiciled in the grounds of John Lord Esq. M.H.A. at Richmond Park, where accommodation of the most suitable character has been placed at their disposal. They have taken to their new home so naturally and contentedly, that, suffered to roam at large, they make use of their liberty to ascend the hills about the grounds during the day, and come home at night.”
The only later mention of the elk was in The Mercury of November 4, 1871, when it was reported “The solitary elk, which escaped from Slopen Island some weeks ago, and swam to Port Arthur, was brought up to Hobart Town on the 24 th ult, and placed in Mr James Lord’s grounds at Swan’s Hill.”
The use of the plural – the elk are domiciled; at their disposal; they have taken; they make use - in the article of February 26 1870 implies that there was more than one ‘elk’…or was it just inaccurate reporting? The elk roamed the hills and came home at night? What happened to the elk after that is currently unknown. John’s research continues.
Several members have shared photos from successful hunts.
Australia Deer magazine Editor