PUBLIC and PRIVATE land hunting in Australia 

Spot on. Thankfully the culture is changing and the new hunters entering the scene (like yourself) are seeing the opportunities for what they are. Not being caught up in all the baggage of the past and infighting. Your spot on with both of your points. Private property offers the perfect way to learn how to hunt and public land hunting is a gem to be cherished, protected and celebrated! Love it. Thank you for commenting and sharing :)

Spot on! I appreciate the support guys. Unity is what we need.

Michael that's awesome. It shows how you can do both public and private. Great work.

Already on it :) ive got some special stuff coming up next year along these lines.. stay tuned.

Thanks TJ!

Thanks Damo

I hope you enjoy it mate.

Hi Jason, you've raised a tough question as there are no definitive maps for Recognised deer habitat as far as I'm aware. The only information that is available comes from the GMA and says the following: "Recognised deer habitat is defined as all areas of Crown land in the following Victorian municipalities: Alpine Shire Council Ararat Rural City Baw Baw Shire Council Benalla Rural City Council Cardinia Shire Council Colac-Otway Shire Council Corangamite Shire Council East Gippsland Shire Council Glenelg Shire Council Horsham Rural City Council Mansfield Shire Council Mitchell Shire Council Murrindindi Shire Council Northern Grampians Shire Council Pyrenees Shire Council South Gippsland Shire Council South Grampians Shire Council Strathbogie Shire Council Towong Shire Council Wangaratta Shire Council Wellington Shire Council Whittlesea City Shire Council Yarra Ranges Shire Council" This means any locations classified as crown land in these areas are a no go for spotlighting. I think you will find it difficult to find public land to spot light feral on anywhere in VIC. This is almost exclusively practice done on private land where you can spot light ferals anytime you want, so long as you have the property owners permission. If I were you I'd give GMA a quick call and ask them where you can do it. Chris

Good point Dan. It's interesting, sometimes deer that are deep in a SF and have never seen people can be even more curious. But then it can also go the other way and be SUPER flightly and highly strung. It's really interesting.

Thank you KC. You've said it perfectly. Hunting in your means. Very true.

As a Queenslander I have yet to see anyone in the hunting hobby that derides public or private land hunting so our experiences differ. There are arguments however over the ethics of bow hunting and paying to hunt feral pests. Personally, I don't believe that bow hunting is inherently unethical and all legal hunting using ethical means is fine. Also we are only allowed to hunt pests so the difference between hunting and pest control is purely academic.

@sumasampo can you elaborate why the difference is only academic? Deer are considered a 'game' animal in Victoria for instance... I'm interested in hearing your thoughts.

@@Thehuntsmanshow I live in Queensland where they are considered invasive. You can farm and keep deer for hunting in Qld but you have to keep them on your property and minimise any damage to waterways and the environment if you do. Wild deer are considered a feral pest animal. Same rules apply for wild goats and sheep. If you can't contain and control the deer on your property then they need to be eradicated. We don't have conserved game species except for indigenous hunters up here and they still have some restrictions to ensure conservation of native animals. Feral pigs, cats, foxes and dogs are eradicate on sight and all land owners need to have eradication plans if found on their property. Feral pigs especially cannot be kept and there is a $50k fine per pig for doing so. Hunting and culling of roos is very tightly controlled with harvesting of roos on a separate licence to the cull permits. Even the CSIRO and the Department of Environment recommends opening up roo hunting and harvesting into a sustainable industry but somehow the RSPCA got made a non government regulator and they hate hunting. The RSPCA would rather see pests killed by 1080 than ethically killed which is an odd choice for an organisation that supports ethical slaughter of livestock. That is just a contradiction of positions to take and improper for an organisation with regulatory enforcement powers. I do love hunting but I may live in the worst state in Australia for the practice of that cultural tradition. We have more population of legal animals to hunt than any other developed nation yet actually getting access to land to hunt on is harder and less acceptable by the public. It is an odd situation we have gotten ourselves into.

You're spot on, its crazy how our government is trying to manage this issue

There definitely use to be but they are all not there anymore unfortunately.

Ditto

You're right about the Asian Buff. I just remembered now seeing them when i was there.

True, that's why i said it had an asterix. It has public land, but not much.

Hey mate. I appreciate your comments, you've raised some good points. I'm sure I'll cover the topics you've raised sometime in the near future. They are important. The reason i chose to cover this topic wasn't to defend my choice to hunt in Watervalley. There is nothing to defend, I've done nothing wrong, nor am i ashamed of hunting there. I don't believe I mentioned anything like this mentioned in the video. A need to defend. I'd be interested to know why you felt this was the focus of the video and what i said that led you to believe this. My goal, as stated in the episode, was to address the negative ideology in our culture that suggests that private land hunting isn't real hunting. You're 100% correct about not everyone has friends who are guides. I wouldn't expect this to be the case. I've developed these relationships over a number of years because of my involvement in the industry. It is however not uncommon for people who live in QLD, NT, WA or TAS to have lots of friends who provide them with access to hunting properties. Or friends who have cracking public land hunting spots they dhare with each other in VIC, NSW or TAS. At the end of the day it's all about the relationships we invest in. Some people have more because they put more work in. They value it more. Others don't. It's just the way things are. What's important is thst if you feel like you are lacking these connections that you go out and forge them :) The same is true for the expense involved in accessing hunting guide's services for meat, education or trophies. Some people want to invest in these things. Some people don't. No one is forcing us to use them, it's a choice. I can tell you right now that none of these guides are getting rich off it. In fact most of them do it as a 2nd or 3rd job and do it for the love of it, for the love of helping others. The high price is generally because of a property owner charging the guide a lot of money to use their property. I hope that helps give you some context. I love your points. Thank you for your comments and future podcast episode ideas. Chris

@@Thehuntsmanshow I'm sorry if you took my comments to be having a bit of a crack at you. I don't have an issue with hunting private property or paying to hunt 'free-range' or 'high-fence' private properties, but I got the impression that you copped some flak for sharing your recent high-fence hunting experience at Water Valley (I refer your comments made at around 25:30), and my takeaway from the podcast is that you spent quite some time talking about and around Water Valley specifically. I agree 100% that you get out what you put in, but I'm sure may people who are new to hunting that don't have a family member or friend as a mentor, do find access to legal hunting areas in say QLD very hard. In QLD for example, there is no debate over public versus private, coz there is only private! I too am a firm believer in investing in oneself, and as a hunter, know all too well that can involve a significant investment of both time and money, but we love it. I also agree with what you are trying to do, which is share your love for hunting in an entertaining and engaging way. Not many people want to invest 30 minutes wating a 'high country sambar hunting video' on RU-vid, where not a deer is shot or even seen. I can do that on my own but enjoy being in the bush at the same time. Keep it up Chris, and hopefully as hunters we can rally together to not just loose our hunting rights/privileges but increase them. The last thing we want is for deer to be re-defined as a pest species, as this will change the hunting landscape for private landowners, and while we pay for licences and hunting permits, the State Governments are using our tax dollars to spend millions on 'pest' eradication programs that simply leave rotting carcasses in the bush. State Government should be utilising recognised hunting organisations more to assist with reduction controls, as this can benefit many. But that is a topic for another day.

100% agree with all your points Ian. No offence taken :) you're right that it's important we need to stick together. Especially when we have so much in common.

I appreciate your comments and thoughtfulness.

Shoot?