Deer Not Brumbies
IT called for culling feral deer
in Victoria. It’s a story echoed
in many regions where
grazing and cropping land
abutts national parks and
state forests. And it invariably
ends with wholesale slaughter
of feral animals – usually
goats, pigs and deer –
invariably fallow, rusa
and sambar.
We’ve seen the huge deer
culls many times in NSW. In
the Hastings district of the
mid-North Coast and the
Illawarra around Wollongong
(rusa). And the New England
in the north and Lake George
in the south-east (fallow).
Commenting on the
proposed adventure ride by
the American Clemmie
Wotherspoon on the
Bicentennial National Trail
from the high country to the
nation’s tip, Duncan
McDonald of Dawes Point,
NSW, noted her trek will take
her through Tom Groggin
Station, which he owns.
“If she is lucky,” he wrote,
”she might have the
inspirational sighting of a mob
of brumbies in Victoria’s
Alpine National Park. She
should also spot quite a few
deer, because the alpine park
and the Kosciuszko National
Park are now home to tens of
thousands of feral deer,
compared to only a few
hundred brumbies.”
“Tom Groggin management
has had to shoot literally
hundreds of deer on the
property in the last 12 months.
The deer come out of the
alpine park and Kosciuszko
park to graze on newly planted
pastures. No brumbies come
onto the property.
“If it wasn’t for this deer
shooting, Tom Groggin
would be devastated and
cease to exist. So why this
dogmatic pursuit of the
brumby, verses deer?”
Duncan McDonald says it’s
because deer are a protected
hunting species in Victoria,
where hunting is permitted
in national parks “and
contributes to Victoria’s state
revenues.” He argues
Victoria’s alpine park “should
abandon its misguided
obsession with the brumby
and focus attention instead
on the ferals doing the real
environmental damage.”
You can see his point. Tom
Groggin, a historic, 2000-acre,
stunningly picturesquemountain property on the
Victorian-NSW border - a short
drive from the ski resort of
Thredbo - has run cattle since
the 1860s. The poet Banjo
Patterson visited the station in
1890 when Jack Riley was
manager. He is widely
believed to be the inspiration
behind Banjo’s “The Man from
Snowy River.”
It runs farm-stay
accommodation, fishing and
all sorts of other leisure
activities which bring in
tourist dollars. Deer – red and
sambar mostly – are not
welcome. Nor, with a few
exceptions, are sportshunters. The lucky ones
report fantastic hunting.
It’s the old dilemma
repeated throughout the
country. Deer that are real
prizes to you and to me, are
unwanted pests to many
landholders, including Mr
McDonald.
The problem, of course, is
that no one pays much
attention to furtive deer until
they are a noticeable and
unwanted pest. Then they’re
bombed senseless in a
knee-jerk reaction.
The more sustainable
approach is the best-practice
model used in the USA, Russia
and Europe - to continually
take off excess populations by
steady shooting. Instead of the
deer population graph going
up and down, up and down in
severe rises and falls, it takes
on a horizontal line. The deer
are then sustainable,
manageable. It’s really just
common sense.9 0 | SPORTING SHOOTER _ MAY 2018
We’ve seen
the huge deer
culls many
times in
NSW.”
An unusual
Letter to the
Editor in The
Australian
newspaper from
a Sydney-based,
Victorian grazier
took Col’s eye in
Februar y.
PARTING
SHOT NEWS, VIEWS AND INSIGHTS – BY COL ALLISONABOVE: A terrific sambar stag- a prize to hunters; unwanted
pest to graziers.