California girl going to Melborne, Aus.

[duckdog]

I will be, for the first time going to Australia :smiley_yahoo: My trip is for the first two weeks in Nov. I will have a least 2 days during that time to maybe find an outfitter to get a hunt in with. I will be in Melborne on those two days.

I'm not sure yet if I am going to rent a car to do some site seeing. Depends if I am comfortable driving on the left side of the road....lol If there's something close by, I'm sure I could get someone to drive me.

Even getting out fishing would be great. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do there. I really want to get out and see the outback and not so much of the city.

My son and I will be traveling with his friends that live in Australia, but they are not the outdoorsy type of ppl. So I really hate to ask them.

I would appreciate any help.

Thanks,
Dana

 

[inchr48]

I'm jealous, sounds like a great trip!

I figure jindydiver will chime in with some suggestions.

 

[Vermonster]

Just curious, what kind of hunting do they do in Austrailia???? I know New Zealand has Red Stag, Chamois, etc., but never really thought about Australia......

Have fun!!

 

[duckdog]

I'm not sure either what they have in Aus. to hunt. I know they have lots of hogs like us here. I am hoping to do a deer hunt there.

I'd love to bring home a nice trophy.

I have waited 46 years to go to Aus. I have dreamed of this day since I was a little girl. I am blessed with a wonderful son who is making my dream come true, and he'll be there with me on this adventure to.

-Dana

 

[weekender21]

They have huge hogs and huge asiatic water buffalo...Have fun!

 

[gatorfan]

They have huge hogs and huge asiatic water buffalo...Have fun!

You didn't stay in that bar very long did you? ig-laughing: I was out of there after 1 pint (2 minutes)!

Sorry, couldn't resist! :lol bashing sign: Have fun on your trip! The only thing I hunted "down under" were Fosters and...

 

[dkhuntr25]

pretty sure they have got some fallows

 

[ltdann]

I remember that they used to hunt kangaroo pretty regular. That might be something.....different.

 

[jindydiver]

G'day Dana

Where abouts are you going to be going during your two weeks?

While you have 2 days in Melbourne you could get some trout fishing in, or go with a charter and catch some snapper in Port Phillip Bay.

I know a bloke or two who can take you out to chase some sambar deer near Melbourne. My mate Paul lives in the North of Melbourne and has a spot 5 minutes from home that has a few sambar on it. If you want to shoot one it will require some organisation (licenses, weapons etc") but we might be able to work something out.

If your travels are taking you further North (a lot further) your options can open up a little. The main problem you are going to find is available time. Nothing in Australia is easy to get to if it isn't in one of the main cities, and great hunting takes some traveling time to get to.

If you just want to see some amazing bush close to Melbourne you could head up to Healesville or over to the mountains West of Geelong.

If you have some specific ideas about what you might be interested I will be able to give you some feedback.

 

[Vermonster]

I know a bloke or two who can take you out to chase some sambar deer near Melbourne.

Too funny.....:rotflmao: I am sitting here, no joke, flipping through the California big game digest as I read these posts. Inside the front cover is a photo of a guy with his pending #1 SAMBAR DEER..... And I think, "Hey, I've never seen one of those or even heard the name". 10 minutes later, I read this post........

 

[k_rad]

I remember that they used to hunt kangaroo pretty regular. That might be something.....different.

they call them Joey's and they are like coyotes here. There is no bag limit and it is open season on them in most parts. I believe it is the same thing for rabbits. There is a big population and they just want to eradicate them...

 

[jindydiver]

they call them Joey's and they are like coyotes here. There is no bag limit and it is open season on them in most parts. I believe it is the same thing for rabbits. There is a big population and they just want to eradicate them...

I don't know where you get your info, but it is all wrong.
Kangaroos can only be killed if you have a permit, this permit is given to a land manager after the number of roos on his property is assessed by NPWS inspectors. Very similar to a depredation permit for you US guys.
Not anybody can shoot them, you must have a trappers licence, or be listed as the shooter on the original permit application.
There is a very strict bag limit, one tag for one roo.

In any year between 10 and 15 percent of the population is killed by shooters, some who make money from them selling the roos to the pet meat trade (and must rigidly adhere to the permit conditions) and some who kill them as a favour to the farmers (and must leave them lay in the paddock).

There is next to no chance at all that Duckdog will get to shoot a roo legally.

 

[ltdann]

Seems to me that gent we ran into back in the day was a rancher. Makes sense that it was a depredation hunt. We were in port for a very limited amount of time and I remember it was quite the drive. We just couldn't pull it off. Did manage to get some awesome trout fishing in down in Hobart. Ahhh, good times!

 

[jindydiver]

Out in the middle of nowhere (and there is plenty of nowhere in Australia) there are a lot of farmers who just let people go to town on the roos. We all know it happens but it isn't legal, just unenforceable

 

[k_rad]

I don't know where you get your info, but it is all wrong.

.

Ouch!
I have never been there, sorry to sound like a know-it-all. My dad lived there for a number of years and he would tell about the Ranchers hating the "Joeys" and shooting them on sight(according to him) There were also lots of stories about different solutions to eradicate pests on the continent. Something about cane frogs and no natural predaters and rabbits tons of rabbits. These stories are easily 20-30 years old so I'm sure it's a different world now. Didn't mean to propagate BS if it's untrue.:bag-on-head:

 

[jindydiver]

It's all good, you wouldn't believe the rubbish some guys here swear is the go in the US:lol bashing sign:



Except for a few examples where people are allowed to shoot roos or wallabies the hunting in Australia is all about introduced animals. Many of them were brought here 100's of years ago just to give the people something to hunt. We have many types of deer, rabbits, foxes, boars, goats, wild dogs, cats, hares (jackrabbits), buffalo, camels, banteng and wild bulls. The deer are considered game in some States and licences must be bought to shoot them, and the banteng are semi-protected because of their rarity in their home range, but the rest are shot almost on sight.
Tonnes of rabbits is right. The damn things breed like rabbits and we sometimes have localised plagues of the rotten things. Makes for some great hunting though. When I bought my 22.250 25 years ago there was a big surge in rabbit numbers and it was great to go out and spend a week bursting 7 or 8 hundred of them. My biggest week away I used over 1200 22.250 rounds and 500 shotgun shells. Cats, rabbits and foxes exploding till you are almost sick of shooting them, almost

The hardest thing about hunting in Australia is the distances you have to travel to go hunting. Some of us are lucky and live close to a few species of deer and have access to seasonal pigs but to get the most out of a hunt here you have to devote your holiday to hunting FIRST and holidaying second. Nobody would figure it worth the time or expense to head to the Rockies and spend just a weekend looking for that trophy elk or ram, and hunting in Australia is just the same. If you want a buff you are looking at spending a week minimum out in the bush, and a good trophy boar is much the same.

These stories are easily 20-30 years old so I'm sure it's a different world now.

Back in the 70's it was anything goes. We hunt on places now that still have remnants of long fences that were used to direct the roos so that the drivers could get them in front of banks of shooters. Nowadays the control of native animals that reach pest numbers is much more controlled and science based.

 

[k_rad]

It's all good, you wouldn't believe the rubbish some guys here swear is the go in the US:lol bashing sign:



it was great to go out and spend a week bursting 7 or 8 hundred of them. My biggest week away I used over 1200 22.250 rounds and 500 shotgun shells. Cats, rabbits and foxes exploding till you are almost sick of shooting them, almost

animals that reach pest numbers is much more controlled and science based.

1200? That's a lot of research! As long as it's science based right? mate... :rotflmao:

 

[Fallow30]

Watervalley

Watervalley ranch is a 300,000 acre game ranch that has 5-6 species of deer. It is a long drive for 2 dayer though. Just out side of Kingston. There are a lot of guided hunts on that property. To the east there is hog deer outside of Bairnsdale, good luck finding someone to take you. Samber hunting all around Victoria forest but are hard to find. Erroll Mason is a good person to contact he was a big game and adventure guide for many years. He can be contacted a sambardeer.com. If you can hook up with a local it would save time/money.atiotic-wavin-flag

 

[jindydiver]

1200? That's a lot of research! As long as it's science based right? mate... :rotflmao:

Just in case you didn't know, cats, foxes and rabbits are introduced species and in the case of foxes and rabbits a land manager can be force (under penalty of huge fines) to control numbers on his/her land. In some areas feral animal numbers are so large that they are poisoned (and in the case of rabbits, blown up with LPG down their warrens).
Hunting, in the sense that you guys from the US understand it, is limited to introduced species in Australia. In some states deer are classed as game now and there are rules surrounding the hunting of them, but farmers can still shoot the crap out of them any how, any when, any way, they please.

 

[jindydiver]

Watervalley ranch is a 300,000 acre game ranch that has 5-6 species of deer. It is a long drive for 2 dayer though. Just out side of Kingston. There are a lot of guided hunts on that property. To the east there is hog deer outside of Bairnsdale, good luck finding someone to take you. Samber hunting all around Victoria forest but are hard to find. Erroll Mason is a good person to contact he was a big game and adventure guide for many years. He can be contacted a sambardeer.com. If you can hook up with a local it would save time/money.atiotic-wavin-flag

Watervalley would be a good option if you were coming at a different time of year. At the time you are coming the fallow and reds will have just dropped their antlers and all the guides will have moved to hunting something else, somewhere else, unless you want to organise in advance a hunt for a meat animal.
You also can't go and shoot the hog deer. They are one of the few introduced species in Australia that are classed as game and they are only allowed to be taken in the month of April. Same deal with them and their antlers too.
Errol doesn't guide in the traditional sense now. He runs educational courses for people wanting to hunt sambar deer. You have to bring your own rifle if you want to kill a sambar with him, and a lot of the time his trips are just field trips to show people big deer and the sign they make (no actual killing involved). You will also find that by November he has packed it in for the year like all the rest of them.