Victoria’s recreational hunting organisations stand united in their opposition to any loss of access to public land and are urging the Victorian Government to strategically grow access and ensure that an increasingly urbanised population has opportunities to participate in active outdoor recreation, including recreational hunting.
Comprised of the Australian Deer Association, Australian Bowhunters Association, Field and Game Australia, the Gippsland Deer Stalkers, The Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (Victoria) and Dog Hunters Victoria, the group’s represent a membership of over 70,000 Victorians and represents the interests of a quarter of a million recreational shooters and hunters in Australia.
The Australian Deer Association’s head of Advocacy, Sean Kilkenny said said this is a huge amount of public land that recreational users have sustainably used for over a hundred years.”
“The groundswell of public support to maintain the status quo is a testament to the value placed on this land by recreational users and we are encouraged by the government’s establishment of the Great Outdoors Taskforce; it demonstrates a recognition of the sustainable use of recreational activities in the bush,” he said.
“A national park was only floated to end native timber harvesting; with that now ended, the campaign for a national park ends with it.”
The members and constituents value opportunities to participate actively in the natural environment, sustainably harvest wild food for the table and protect important environmental and cultural assets.
Recreational hunting contributes hundreds of millions of dollars annually to the Victorian economy and directly supports thousands of full-time jobs.
Of immediate concern to our organisations is a proposal that would turn approximately 360,000ha of State Forest in the Central Highlands into a National Park, such as the proposal of a Great Forest National Park.. Such a change would inevitably exclude access for thousands of deer hunters who work with scent-trailing hounds and companion dogs and hunters who pursue pest species. It would also significantly restrict access for tens of thousands of deer stalkers.
The hunting community has engaged openly with the eminent panel considering this proposal and has stressed the importance of maintaining and improving recreational hunting access. The unprecedented level of engagement at local forums and online from concerned local communities and active recreational users is a testament to the disconnect between the inner urban activists agitating for this park and the ordinary Victorians who would be negatively impacted by it.
The organisations believe that the Government committing to any changes to land tenure in the Central Highlands (or elsewhere in the Victorian public land estate) would be premature. Notably, the Government has recently established a Great Outdoors Taskforce to take a more holistic, considered, and strategic approach to how Victorians protect, conserve and use public land in a post-timber harvesting environment.
Our organisations are committed to engaging productively with the new Great Outdoors Taskforce to ensure that Victoria’s future land management arrangements meet the dual and largely compatible needs of preserving our precious natural environment and providing active outdoor recreation opportunities for the growing population.
