Loving the new public land hunting

[jindydiver]

A few years ago the government of New south Wales (the most populous state in Australia) introduced a new scheme to allow hunters into public lands that were previously very difficult to get hunting permits for. Since then we have seen millions of hectares of land opened up to public hunting, and a lot of this land is crawling with game. There are no limits to what you can take (as long as it is feral) or how much (except for some small restrictions on 3 deer species). All you need to do is pass a test that is easy to do for anybody who has been hunting for any time, pay your yearly fee ($60) and you can log onto the Gov' website and book a hunt. The forests have a restriction of one hunter per 500 hectares (about 1000 acres) so that the most popular forests don't just fill with hunters each w/e, and it is easy to find a forest with plenty of deer or hogs whenever you want to hunt.

We have a long w/e this week and on Thursday I booked a couple of days in a local forest. I left home at 4am and was ready to start my walk at 6.30, by 7am I had 2 deer to cut up and I was back home with a feed for the family by lunchtime:bounce-aqua: The deer were fairly easy to find and I had plenty of time to choose the 2 tastiest looking ones, both yearling bucks.

I will be taking a guy out to this forest next w/e to teach him a little bit about deer, I hope we get onto a good mob so he can choose one he wants

The deer from yesterday

A couple of deer taken there in the past

And a live one

 

[rockcrick]

That is awesome, what type of deer are in your photos. Looks like a couple fallow deer and some others. What is the website for the wildlife department in Australia, I would like to read abou their management strategy.

 

[jindydiver]

They are fallow, except for the last pic and 3rd from last, they are reds.

Game management is state based here (just like over there) and the management plan ranges from "don't care" to "kill them all" to "as long as hunters pay us we will put up with them".
This is the website of the NSW Game Council (who manage the forest those deer were taken in)
Game Council NSW


These are the guys in Victoria
Game Hunting home

No other states have any government department to manage hunting, although they all have a department to manage animal numbers using helicopter shooting or poisoning

Australia is very backwards when it comes to wildlife management

 

[rockcrick]

Thanks for the info Mick. Someone needs to tell them how much more money they'd be able to make if they managed for trophy hunting or just sustainable harvest. I would gladly pay to hunt free range fallow deer in Australia.

 

[jindydiver]

Thanks for the info Mick. Someone needs to tell them how much more money they'd be able to make if they managed for trophy hunting or just sustainable harvest. I would gladly pay to hunt free range fallow deer in Australia.

Who is the "them" you are referring to? Are you referring to the Gov'? They don't want to make money from hunting, they are happy to save money (that would be spent on animal control) by just letting us go hunting. If they start charging for tags like the US States do then there would be less hunting and the Gov' would just have to pay for more pro shooters.
We don't have the same dynamics that control deer numbers that you have over in the US. Here deer are a feral animal and we haven't the numbers of hunters to keep up with the deer ability to breed so no managing for sustainable harvest is needed. We can shoot as many as we like and the herds only get bigger.
And why would you want to pay to hunt the free range fallow(or any other deer)? Get yourself over here and buy a game license and have at it

So I don't have to retype how the funding works for the new NSW Game Council you can view this page where I try to explain it to someone (who obviously just wants to argue)
Welcome To The OZBOW Campfires! • View topic - Conservation hunting on channel ten news

 

[rockcrick]

The "them" I was referring to was the government.

That is a different approach to game management. I wish we had the same problem with some species here "too many animals and not enough hunters".

I might just have to make a trip down under to shoot some feral animals. I looked through the Game Councils website and they didn't mention international hunters or licensing, I assume they must not care as long as you buy a license and shoot some ferals. That seems like quite a good deal considering a canned hunt for fallow deer here would be several thousand dollars. It looks like there must be some decent public land hunting (obviously from the pics) you got any pointers for a foreigner like myself for a DIY hunt?

 

[archryhunt]

Thanks for your information.I found your story interesting and was about to plan to have hunting session on that place. It seems to have great deers on that place.

 

[Orygun]

Thanks for sharing. Always great to see pics of what folks are hunting beyond the borders