State government questioned over deer control strategy

The Victorian National Parks Association has questioned the state government’s decision not to declare deer a ‘pest’ species and pursue a control strategy.

Roughly $1 million will be put towards managing 1.5 million deer in the outer northern and eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

Head of Park Protection at Victorian National Parks Association, Phil Ingamells say it’s a “very strange situation.”

“They’re clearly a pest animal, and they do a huge amount of damage across Victoria, not just to the environment but also to orchids and vineyards and things like that,” he said.

“It’s going to be really hard to take them down to a sensible population.”

Mr Ingamells says a long term strategies such as biological controls need to be pursued, but in the mean time amateur hunters and professional pest control businesses should be taken advantage of.

“There’s an awful lot of people with hunting licence in Victoria,” he told Tom Elliot on 3AW Drive.

“There is the capacity, if the funding was there, to move them into professional employment in regional areas, and that makes it a more humane thing.”

“But it does need money and conviction.”

Click PLAY to hear the full interview below