ADA BRANCH PROFILE: SYDNEY BRANCH

By Martin Auldist

Oct 16, 2023

Life Member John Mumford, with President Simon Pace and Vice-president Rod Jackson at a recent monthly meeting.

Branch information and membership

The Sydney branch is the longest-running ADA branch in New South Wales, celebrating its 30-year anniversary this year. Currently it has about 450 members who hail mostly from the Greater Sydney area. The Sydney branch prides itself on being welcoming and inclusive, with an active member base, and a goal of making deer hunting accessible to a largely urbanised region.

Branch meetings

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Meetings are held monthly at Emu Plains Sporting Club at the base of the Blue Mountains. As a large number of members hail from Western Sydney, this is a popular location. It also doesn’t hurt that Emu Sports does a pretty good meal! Some members bring their family along and most make a night of it with dinner and drinks, making for a great social atmosphere. Fifty to 70 members attend most months.

The branch aims to provide quality entertainment and education at meetings, regularly hosting external speakers and speakers from within the membership. Speakers during the past couple of years have ranged from a first-aid trainer, a snake man, an optics specialist and a gunsmith, as well as more specific deer education topics. The Sydney branch is also proud to offer members quality raffle prizes each month.

All guests are welcome, so if you find yourself in Sydney on the first Wednesday of the month, drop in and say ‘hi’.

Branch leadership

Simon Pace is currently president of Sydney branch with Rod Jackson the vice-president. Rod was new to deer hunting when he joined the ADA in 2019 and brought fresh ideas and energy to the team. Simon and Rod are supported by a strong committee of eight.

The Sydney branch has two ADA Life Members, John Mumford and Robert Brown. Both were ADA NSW presidents at different times. John was an inaugural member of the NSW branch, and through his work with ADA and Game Council, was instrumental in making public land hunting accessible in the state. Robert took his advocacy all the way to parliament, as an elected Member of the NSW Legislative Council from 2006 to 2019.

Other branch events and activities

The Sydney branch hosts an annual Hunter Education Weekend in August, which any member or guest has the opportunity to attend. This two-and-a-half-day event covers all the core deer hunting information you would expect, with a NSW flavour. Old and new hunters alike get something out of the weekend.

Branch hunts are back on track, with the traditional Moroka Junction October long weekend adventure back on the agenda. This hunt provides a great opportunity for members to socialise and learn how to bag a sambar. Hunts in NSW state forests are also scheduled a couple of times each year to help members learn their ‘local’ hunting grounds.

The Sydney branch is fortunate to have access to a property south of Sydney, through a long-standing friendship with the farming family that owns the land. With our own hut on the property, members are invited to participate in a ballot at the October meeting to secure a weekend at the property during the following year.

The Annual Christmas Dinner and Awards Night, held on the first Saturday in December, is always a good bash, with 120 members or more regularly in attendance. Awards are given not just for successful hunters, but also to recognise individual contributions to the branch and the ADA.

One such award, the Tony Chidiac Trophy, is awarded to the member that has contributed the most to the branch during the year. Tony Chidiac was an inaugural member of the Sydney ADA, and an outstanding contributor who could never do enough for the branch — whether on cleaning duty during camp hunts, conducting firearm tests to help people get into hunting, or doing anything else that was asked of him. As such, the Sydney branch honours his legacy with an annual award in his name.