Tasmania’s deer culling program in the Central Plateau should start earlier in the year to be more effective, Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MP Carlo Di Falco has told parliament.
Speaking during question time on Thursday, Di Falco asked Primary Industries and Water Minister Gavin Pearce on the timing of the cull, which began this week.
“I’ve looked at the weather forecast. I think the deer will win this weekend,” Di Falco said.
“I know that the anglers won’t be happy and we can’t afford to use helicopters, but we need to look to start this earlier in the year to yield the best results. Do you agree?”
The cull runs from May 4 to May 31 in the eastern section of the Central Plateau Conservation Area.
Volunteers from the Australian Deer Association and the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia are carrying out ground shooting under departmental supervision.
The start date was pushed back from April 27 after anglers complained the original timing would have locked them out for the final week of the brown trout season, which closed on May 3.
Pearce did not commit to an earlier start.
He pointed to the Tasmanian Wild Fallow Deer Management Plan 2022-27 as the government’s blueprint for managing deer populations.
“The latest survey trials from the Wild Fallow Deer Survey demonstrate there is more to be done in that management area,” Pearce said.
He said an additional $2.25 million over three years would help landowners and recreational hunters reduce deer numbers and that more public land had been opened to shooters.
Pearce acknowledged the environmental damage deer were causing in national parks and the difficulty of culling in peri-urban areas, where shooter safety is a concern.
A monitoring program using sentinel cameras is in place to detect deer returning to the Walls of Jerusalem National Park.
