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VICTORIA'S NEW SCIENCE: A DUCK IS A DUCK

Updated: Mar 15

REGULATOR'S RECOMMENDATION QUIETLY PUBLISHED


Do you live near n unmarked outdoor shooting range?


Australian Shelduck, monogamous. Concentrated in few wetlands in NSW, SA and Victoria. Its numbers are so low that restrictions are in place for SA shooters. But in Victoria its existence is at risk as the government's new science does not distinguish between species.
Australian Shelduck, monogamous. Concentrated in few wetlands in NSW, SA and Victoria. Its numbers are so low that restrictions are in place for SA shooters. But in Victoria its existence is at risk as the government's new science does not distinguish between species.

Photo Eleanor Dilley

Regulator's Recommendation Under Fire

 

With just over a week to go until the gunfire starts, the Game Management Authority (GMA) quietly published its relevant recommendation to the Minister.

 

We note several key points failed to make its “core message” such as:

 

  • Its November counts found 44% less waterways and 38% less ducks than the previous year.


  • Some duck species, including those most vulnerable, are concentrated in a small number of wetlands in Victoria, “sitting ducks” for shooters.


  • Most "game" duck species are in long-term decline (EAWS data 1983-2024).


  • In the few other states that still permit duck shooting, there are restrictions in place to protect the alarmingly low duck numbers. Certain species are off the kill list in SA, such as Hardhead, Pink-eared Duck, and the Mountain Duck is restricted to 2/day. But in Victoria, the Government’s new “science” sees a duck as a duck. Nine of which - even of these struggling species - can be bagged each day per shooter (up from 6 last year), for an extra long shooting season.


  • There will be 50% more shooting days in 2025 than in the 1950's, 60's and 70's.


  • An increased kill quota will have significant adverse impacts on regional communities, with intrusive gunfire persisting for longer each day.


  • Victoria is suffering significant drought. (Hence the government’s drought relief packages: $13 million to support western Victorian farmers, and in recognition of drought continuing, further resilience programs announced.) Victoria has just sweltered through the hottest/driest January for 100 years, and BOM’s forecast for the state is the trend will continue.

     

The above omissions have far-reaching consequences. The GMA Board signed off on the recommendation for one of the largest duck shoots in Victoria’s history acknowledging “there is a level of uncertainty in modelling the daily bag limit to achieve the proportional harvest level…” and the new model is a “learning by doing system that will be refined and become more precise over time”. It seems GMA is happy to risk our native birdlife and regional communities as collateral damage in the meantime.


Left: screenshot from Bureau of Meterology




Above: latest reports by Goulburn Murray Water, the largest regional water manager in Victoria, show 13 of 22 storages are significantly down from the same time last year.

Sitting Ducks in Victoria

 

It's not rocket science to see our native ducks will be sitting ducks for shooters in the few wetlands they happen to be concentrated in within our state.

 

But the Allan government has increased the shoot, based on new (non independently peer-reviewed) “science” which duck shooters have been fighting to implement for many years.

 

Aside from failing to differentiate between species, another major flaw of the new “science” is it only considers ducks in Victoria. Pity if a non-proportional percentage of the country’s ducks are in Victoria, about to be blasted from the skies for “recreation”, which sadly appears to be the case as per the below examples.



Above: screenshots from the East Australian Aerial Waterbird Survey (EAAWS) showing where ducks are. Of particular concern is the Shelduck. See below: changes in Shelduck abundance (EAAWS 1983-2024), horizontal line shows long-term average.



Do You Live Near an Unmarked Outdoor Shooting Range?

 

Meanwhile, government officials have advised us that duck shooters (who represent less than half of one percent of the population) can shoot at over 50% of the state's public area (250,000 hectares - or about 4 x the size of Singapore).

 

The Parliamentary Inquiry however, found that up to 3.5 million hectares (an area 50 x the size of Singapore) of Victoria's public land is available for duck shooters.

 

In fact the officials advised us that hunting is permitted on all Victoria's public areas unless specifically prohibited, (not that there seems to be any legal instrument stating that). The vast majority of these areas are not signposted as outdoor shooting ranges and many aren't showing on hunting maps- it's "public beware".

 

With a precedent set in 2019 when two wetlands were closed in Mildura for public safety concerns, on GMA’s advice RVOTDS submitted a request to DEECA and the Minister's office (last October) to have a relatively small number of public waterways excluded from shooting.

 

With just a week until the gunfire starts, it's concerning we are yet to receive an outcome. It's difficult to understand how issues affecting the health, safety and livelihoods of regional voters, could take five months to resolve, and we hope it is not an indication of politics at play.

Report Threatened Species

 

What has been communicated just yesterday, is the process for reporting the presence of threatened species / breeding waterbirds.

 

Please check Victorian hunting wetlands near you as soon as possible (and ongoing through the shooting season), and submit the form accordingly. Authorities will then verify and if necessary, close the wetlands to shooting. While it's unclear how they will be able to physically do this across so many shooting areas, we owe it to our birdlife to do what we can.


Is Your MP Representing You?

 

As it is the job of your elected representatives, state and federal, to listen, consider and act on, what is important to you, please contact your local MPs urgently & ask them to take action to stop the native bird shooting season going ahead.

 

Please also email Hon Tanya Plibersek. These struggling birds belong to all Australians.

Sign the BirdLife Australia Petition

 

RVOTDS is grateful that BirdLife Australia is ramping up the fight to protect Australia's native waterbirds. Please sign their petition here.



Left: the stunning Freckled Duck, Australia's rarest native duck, collateral damage in "recreational" duck shooting.

Photo Roger Nicoll


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RVOTDS is a volunteer not-for-profit committed to being a voice for our native birds who cannot speak for themselves, and the rural communities who love them.

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