June 18, 2024 • 13 mins
Welcome to another exciting episode of The Roar on the Australian Deer Podcast. This month, host Paul Gray is joined by Sean Kilkenny, the lead of advocacy and team management at the ADA. Tune in as they delve into the highlights of the Responsible Shooting Expo held at the Victorian Parliament, with notable speeches and engaging interactions with MPs.
Sean shares a captivating historical anecdote about Queen Elizabeth II's royal banquet featuring venison, showcasing the deep-rooted connection between deer hunting and Australian heritage. The story brings to life the adventurous hunt for hog deer venison in 1954, a fascinating piece of history from Wilson's Promontory.
The episode concludes with an in-depth discussion on the wildlife game regulations in Victoria, covering their significance, the anticipated regulatory impact statement, and the importance of hunter participation in shaping these regulations. Don't miss your monthly dose of all things deer, exclusively on the Australian Deer Podcast.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
(00:10):
Gateway to the captivating world of Australian deer. Join us as we explore the
latest news and events shaping landscapes of wild deer across Australia.
Tune in for your monthly dose of all things deer exclusively on the Australian Deer Podcast.
Welcome back to The Roar on the Australian Deer Podcast.
(00:33):
I'm your host Paul Gray and today I have of Sean Kilkenny, the lead of advocacy
and team management at the ADA. Welcome, Sean.
Thanks, Paul. Great to be here. Great to have you back.
Just before we kick off the three subjects for this podcast,
I just wanted to say thank you to all the members and the general public who
have reached out and provided a lot of positive feedback.
(00:56):
It's really encouraging and we'll keep pushing forward to improve it as we go.
Today, we're going to cover the Responsible Shooting Expo,
and then Sean will share a story about the time Queen Elizabeth II consumed
venison at the Royal Banquet and finally will finish up on the wildlife game
regulations in Victoria and where they're at.
(01:17):
Alright Sean, we'd like to kick us off on the Responsible Shooting Expo.
So what was it and where was it?
Sure can Paul. So the Responsible Shooting Expo was Expo the first of its kind
that was held in the Queen's Hall at the Victorian Parliament.
We attended and exhibited alongside Fielding Game Australia,
(01:38):
the Victorian Amateur Pistol Association and the Sporting Shooters Association
of Australia, Victoria, which sponsored the event with Jeff Borman from the
Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party.
ADA is also on the Victorian Firearms Consultative Committee alongside Fielding
Game, Double Star Blade and the VAPA.
(01:59):
So we all had a bit of rapport, but it was a fantastic event where we could
spend the three days there engaging with the MPs.
Yep. And do you want to let the listeners know who spoke during that time?
Yeah, sure. So I guess the culmination or the peak of the event was on the Wednesday
where there was some sandwiches and some speeches given.
No one says no to a free sandwich, so they were quite popular.
(02:22):
But the MPs that spoke included Minister Dimopoulos, he's Minister for Environment,
Outdoor Rec, Tourism, Sport and Major Events.
Emma Keeley, who is the Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Mental Health,
and Geoff Borman, the MP of the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party.
(02:43):
They all gave representative speeches as members of Parliament.
One of the highlights of the speeches they gave from Minister DeMopoulos was he spoke to us as equals.
This was something that's new to the industry being involved in or presenting
these exhibitions at Parliament.
(03:03):
And he gave quite encouraging words along the lines of, this is your house being
Parliament House. You're welcome here as much as anybody else.
And you should feel comfortable demonstrating or promoting your industry here.
So that was quite heartening to hear from the minister that's responsible for
us. and that went down quite well.
It also went down quite well with all of the other MPs across all parties that were in attendance.
(03:27):
Emma Keeley also spoke and recounted a personal story about how recreational hunting has,
it's not necessarily a hunter herself, but she can understand the value and
the importance that it has within people who undertake it.
They have a family property where each year they'd have recreational hunters
that they grew close to come up and spend the weekend with their friends and
(03:51):
family. That was an annual event.
But unfortunately, one of the older gentlemen ended up passing away.
But once he passed away, his request was that he wanted his ashes spread up
on the property because that was his happy place and that's where he developed
a strong connection to the land.
So that was actually a really touching story that showed our intrinsic connection to the land.
(04:15):
Unfortunately, this person passed away, way but then he demonstrated this was
his happy place and this is where he wanted to be moving forward one thing i
did notice you're wobble there there was a few mps she's sought you out to ask
about the central highlands issue would you like to give us a quick update on that.
Yeah, sure. Look, I guess the reality was we were in Queen's Hall for three days.
(04:38):
So there was plenty of opportunities to engage with members of parliament.
One of the key headline issues that we have in our industry at the moment in Victoria,
that is the ongoing subject of the central high lands and what the future land
tenure looks like, if there should be any change and the reasons for or against that.
(04:58):
So many MPs, ministers and whatnot wanted to hear our opinion on it and our take.
So it was actually great to be able to have that conversation with them quite
casually and walk them through the issues with the creation of a national park
and the reality of there being a lack of reason for doing it on the back of
timber harvesting now being ceased in such an area.
(05:21):
That was quite well received and the logic
that was shared amongst us put us all on a good footing moving
forward whilst it's not the be all
and end all that just shows the value of being able to have these
conversations with these people in their
place of work that event will quite
wrap to here effectively on the abc radio the other week minister steve demopolis
(05:44):
was on there being interviewed about this subject itself and he made the statement
that there would be no new national parks in the central highlands that was
not a government commitment or policy whilst that's It's not the be-all and end-all.
That is certainly a better outcome than him saying there would be one.
So whilst nothing's said and done just yet, we are slowly building towards,
(06:07):
hopefully, a positive outcome for everybody.
Being in Queen's Hall led me to recall a story you told me about recently in
relation to the Royal Banquet during the visit of Queen Elizabeth II.
Can you share the story with listeners, please, Sean?
Yeah, sure. It's actually quite an interesting one. And it's not my story per
(06:28):
se, because it was before my time, I must admit, in 1954.
But it was actually in the book Heads and Tails by Jack Rhodes,
who was a fisheries officer.
And it recounts a story in that book where he was in Port Welshpool in February 1954.
So it was probably relatively warm at that stage.
And he met up with some other fisheries officers who
(06:49):
had ended up being charged with ultimately trying
to procure some hog deer venison to be used for a royal banquet where the venison
would feature as the main meal and that was to be conducted in the royal ballroom
which is or was in the exhibition building in Carlton in Melbourne.
(07:10):
So it was a fairly big song and dance at the time but that said he ended up
departing from Port Welshpool.
It was quite a large hunting party but one of the The main features of them
was a deer hunter from Wonthaggy, or Wonny, as the locals call it,
Bill Boyne, who owned two hounds, Daddy Boy and Pongo.
So they set off on boat from Welshpool, travelled down the eastern side of the
(07:35):
prom where they spent their first night camped on the boat and in their sheltered cove.
Before the next warning they ducked up down and around back over to Oberon Bay
and landed on the beach using a little power dinghy that they had towed along for that purpose.
It was a fairly cool adventure. It was a little bit before everyone was doing
the Dartmouth or Lake Yilden mission. They were a bit ahead of their time.
(07:58):
But that said, they ended up landing at Oberon Bay, punched in land about three
Ks on the search for some deer or venison, particularly hog deer, that matter.
One of the requests that was given to them was, if you could please shoot a
hog deer while it was grazing, if it was possible.
As it turned out, that wasn't the case. They ended up having to use the hounds
(08:19):
to try and flush out deer, which they were successful in doing.
Once they'd released the hounds they were stood up on the saddle.
Bill Boyne said to Jack, let's stay here.
My suspicion is there'll be a bit of a song and dance with the hounds going
on but any hog deer that were here would try and circle back around and loop
back and try and find a bit of safety here and lo and behold that's what they ended up doing.
(08:45):
There was a hog deer stag that was about half a k in front of the dogs,
tried to loop back around,
crossed over in front of Jack, who got presented with a nice broadside shot,
was able to harvest the deer with one bullet, one shot, and that was his first ever hog deer,
first ever deer for that matter, that he managed to shoot effectively off the
back of their hounds in Wilson's Prompt, and for no other than Queen Elizabeth II at the time.
(09:10):
So that was pretty out there, it's
a bit of a story that you don't hear many people
kinlay claim to but it's a fascinating one that no one's ever heard when you
recount it to them so it's actually a really good bit of history from the prom
that no one saw coming it's a stark contrast to the current situation down at
the prom with hog deer as people would know there's a few things going on the
(09:32):
prom at the moment there's obviously an ongoing attempt at an eradication program.
And then there's also an attempt at building a i suppose they call it a biodiversity
wall which is supposed to separate everything and help deliver some sort of
biodiversity outcomes which.
I suppose it's safe to say people are a little bit sceptical of,
but regardless, that's what's happening at the problem these days.
(09:53):
It really is a marvellous story.
We'll move on now to the wildlife game regulations in Victoria.
Firstly, what are they? Probably the best way to explain what the regs are is
that they are one part of a regulatory jigsaw that govern hunting,
in this case in Victoria.
Broadly, they cover the who, what, when and how of hunting rather than the where and the why.
(10:15):
So quite an important piece of regulatory
requirements that we operate within and every
10 years as regulations do they have a
sunset period so that they are forced to be remade on that actually it's actually
a really good point where we can tie in why we have game regulations and how
that applies to wild deer so in victoria wild deer are considered a game animal
(10:40):
As a result of being a game animal,
anyone that hunts, in this case deer,
fall under the wildlife game regulations.
And the regulations are there to manage the hunter and not the animal.
So that's really important for people to always keep front of mind as there's
obviously a lot of political lobby groups out there that try and confuse this point for game.
(11:04):
So at this moment, we're expecting a regulatory impact statement to come out
soon. So, Sean, can you touch base on that and what we're expecting?
Obviously, it's quite a drawn-out process that we've had for this set of regulations
where we've been campaigning to bring this forward for the last four years, actually.
But it looks like we've finally gotten to a point where there is some movement at the station.
(11:28):
And the next step will be that a regulatory impact statement is released.
It's likely to be this month, possibly the end of June.
I'd hate to put a date on it because the way this has gone, the goalposts seem to continuously move.
But whilst not knowing what is actually going to be in the RIS or the Regulatory
Impact Statements, we'd be expected to cover topics fairly broadly relating
(11:51):
to or off the back of the native bird hunting firing that happened in Victoria recently.
There'll be some issues regarding deer and also
be the possibility that the regs
themselves might be split into two stages one
that's done immediately this year and comes into effect
in September and then one that's earmarked to come in later so possibly next
(12:16):
year or maybe in the year after I don't know when but later and that will probably
be more likely to cover more more complicated subjects that would require more
preparation or potentially truthing or groundwork.
So that's all a bit about what we need to discover later this month when we
hear from the RIS and the government on it.
Once it's been released, we can then delve into more detail and talk about what's
(12:40):
been proposed and any potential ramifications for deer hunters.
Certainly. So obviously this is a once-in-a-decade opportunity to provide input
as recreational hunters about what they would like to see or to voice their
opinion on what is being proposed within the regs.
It's always very valuable for hunters to contribute to this when it's a public
(13:03):
statement because everybody sees things differently and it also helps provide
an opportunity to interrogate potential changes or consequences of changes that
others may not have thought of.
So when that becomes available, we'll be sure to share it and it'll be great
for people to take a read and provide their input on it.
(13:23):
Yeah, beautiful. I think we'll wrap that up for today. Thanks again for your
time. We'll speak to you next month. More than welcome. Thanks, Paul.
The Roar on the Australian Deer Podcast. Brought to you by the Australian Deer Association.
Proudly in partnership with Stoney Creek.
Music.
(00:10):
Gateway to the captivating world of Australian deer. Join us as we explore the
latest news and events shaping landscapes of wild deer across Australia.
Tune in for your monthly dose of all things deer exclusively on the Australian Deer Podcast.
Welcome back to The Roar on the Australian Deer Podcast.
(00:33):
I'm your host Paul Gray and today I have of Sean Kilkenny, the lead of advocacy
and team management at the ADA. Welcome, Sean.
Thanks, Paul. Great to be here. Great to have you back.
Just before we kick off the three subjects for this podcast,
I just wanted to say thank you to all the members and the general public who
have reached out and provided a lot of positive feedback.
(00:56):
It's really encouraging and we'll keep pushing forward to improve it as we go.
Today, we're going to cover the Responsible Shooting Expo,
and then Sean will share a story about the time Queen Elizabeth II consumed
venison at the Royal Banquet and finally will finish up on the wildlife game
regulations in Victoria and where they're at.
(01:17):
Alright Sean, we'd like to kick us off on the Responsible Shooting Expo.
So what was it and where was it?
Sure can Paul. So the Responsible Shooting Expo was Expo the first of its kind
that was held in the Queen's Hall at the Victorian Parliament.
We attended and exhibited alongside Fielding Game Australia,
(01:38):
the Victorian Amateur Pistol Association and the Sporting Shooters Association
of Australia, Victoria, which sponsored the event with Jeff Borman from the
Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party.
ADA is also on the Victorian Firearms Consultative Committee alongside Fielding
Game, Double Star Blade and the VAPA.
(01:59):
So we all had a bit of rapport, but it was a fantastic event where we could
spend the three days there engaging with the MPs.
Yep. And do you want to let the listeners know who spoke during that time?
Yeah, sure. So I guess the culmination or the peak of the event was on the Wednesday
where there was some sandwiches and some speeches given.
No one says no to a free sandwich, so they were quite popular.
(02:22):
But the MPs that spoke included Minister Dimopoulos, he's Minister for Environment,
Outdoor Rec, Tourism, Sport and Major Events.
Emma Keeley, who is the Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Mental Health,
and Geoff Borman, the MP of the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party.
(02:43):
They all gave representative speeches as members of Parliament.
One of the highlights of the speeches they gave from Minister DeMopoulos was he spoke to us as equals.
This was something that's new to the industry being involved in or presenting
these exhibitions at Parliament.
(03:03):
And he gave quite encouraging words along the lines of, this is your house being
Parliament House. You're welcome here as much as anybody else.
And you should feel comfortable demonstrating or promoting your industry here.
So that was quite heartening to hear from the minister that's responsible for
us. and that went down quite well.
It also went down quite well with all of the other MPs across all parties that were in attendance.
(03:27):
Emma Keeley also spoke and recounted a personal story about how recreational hunting has,
it's not necessarily a hunter herself, but she can understand the value and
the importance that it has within people who undertake it.
They have a family property where each year they'd have recreational hunters
that they grew close to come up and spend the weekend with their friends and
(03:51):
family. That was an annual event.
But unfortunately, one of the older gentlemen ended up passing away.
But once he passed away, his request was that he wanted his ashes spread up
on the property because that was his happy place and that's where he developed
a strong connection to the land.
So that was actually a really touching story that showed our intrinsic connection to the land.
(04:15):
Unfortunately, this person passed away, way but then he demonstrated this was
his happy place and this is where he wanted to be moving forward one thing i
did notice you're wobble there there was a few mps she's sought you out to ask
about the central highlands issue would you like to give us a quick update on that.
Yeah, sure. Look, I guess the reality was we were in Queen's Hall for three days.
(04:38):
So there was plenty of opportunities to engage with members of parliament.
One of the key headline issues that we have in our industry at the moment in Victoria,
that is the ongoing subject of the central high lands and what the future land
tenure looks like, if there should be any change and the reasons for or against that.
(04:58):
So many MPs, ministers and whatnot wanted to hear our opinion on it and our take.
So it was actually great to be able to have that conversation with them quite
casually and walk them through the issues with the creation of a national park
and the reality of there being a lack of reason for doing it on the back of
timber harvesting now being ceased in such an area.
(05:21):
That was quite well received and the logic
that was shared amongst us put us all on a good footing moving
forward whilst it's not the be all
and end all that just shows the value of being able to have these
conversations with these people in their
place of work that event will quite
wrap to here effectively on the abc radio the other week minister steve demopolis
(05:44):
was on there being interviewed about this subject itself and he made the statement
that there would be no new national parks in the central highlands that was
not a government commitment or policy whilst that's It's not the be-all and end-all.
That is certainly a better outcome than him saying there would be one.
So whilst nothing's said and done just yet, we are slowly building towards,
(06:07):
hopefully, a positive outcome for everybody.
Being in Queen's Hall led me to recall a story you told me about recently in
relation to the Royal Banquet during the visit of Queen Elizabeth II.
Can you share the story with listeners, please, Sean?
Yeah, sure. It's actually quite an interesting one. And it's not my story per
(06:28):
se, because it was before my time, I must admit, in 1954.
But it was actually in the book Heads and Tails by Jack Rhodes,
who was a fisheries officer.
And it recounts a story in that book where he was in Port Welshpool in February 1954.
So it was probably relatively warm at that stage.
And he met up with some other fisheries officers who
(06:49):
had ended up being charged with ultimately trying
to procure some hog deer venison to be used for a royal banquet where the venison
would feature as the main meal and that was to be conducted in the royal ballroom
which is or was in the exhibition building in Carlton in Melbourne.
(07:10):
So it was a fairly big song and dance at the time but that said he ended up
departing from Port Welshpool.
It was quite a large hunting party but one of the The main features of them
was a deer hunter from Wonthaggy, or Wonny, as the locals call it,
Bill Boyne, who owned two hounds, Daddy Boy and Pongo.
So they set off on boat from Welshpool, travelled down the eastern side of the
(07:35):
prom where they spent their first night camped on the boat and in their sheltered cove.
Before the next warning they ducked up down and around back over to Oberon Bay
and landed on the beach using a little power dinghy that they had towed along for that purpose.
It was a fairly cool adventure. It was a little bit before everyone was doing
the Dartmouth or Lake Yilden mission. They were a bit ahead of their time.
(07:58):
But that said, they ended up landing at Oberon Bay, punched in land about three
Ks on the search for some deer or venison, particularly hog deer, that matter.
One of the requests that was given to them was, if you could please shoot a
hog deer while it was grazing, if it was possible.
As it turned out, that wasn't the case. They ended up having to use the hounds
(08:19):
to try and flush out deer, which they were successful in doing.
Once they'd released the hounds they were stood up on the saddle.
Bill Boyne said to Jack, let's stay here.
My suspicion is there'll be a bit of a song and dance with the hounds going
on but any hog deer that were here would try and circle back around and loop
back and try and find a bit of safety here and lo and behold that's what they ended up doing.
(08:45):
There was a hog deer stag that was about half a k in front of the dogs,
tried to loop back around,
crossed over in front of Jack, who got presented with a nice broadside shot,
was able to harvest the deer with one bullet, one shot, and that was his first ever hog deer,
first ever deer for that matter, that he managed to shoot effectively off the
back of their hounds in Wilson's Prompt, and for no other than Queen Elizabeth II at the time.
(09:10):
So that was pretty out there, it's
a bit of a story that you don't hear many people
kinlay claim to but it's a fascinating one that no one's ever heard when you
recount it to them so it's actually a really good bit of history from the prom
that no one saw coming it's a stark contrast to the current situation down at
the prom with hog deer as people would know there's a few things going on the
(09:32):
prom at the moment there's obviously an ongoing attempt at an eradication program.
And then there's also an attempt at building a i suppose they call it a biodiversity
wall which is supposed to separate everything and help deliver some sort of
biodiversity outcomes which.
I suppose it's safe to say people are a little bit sceptical of,
but regardless, that's what's happening at the problem these days.
(09:53):
It really is a marvellous story.
We'll move on now to the wildlife game regulations in Victoria.
Firstly, what are they? Probably the best way to explain what the regs are is
that they are one part of a regulatory jigsaw that govern hunting,
in this case in Victoria.
Broadly, they cover the who, what, when and how of hunting rather than the where and the why.
(10:15):
So quite an important piece of regulatory
requirements that we operate within and every
10 years as regulations do they have a
sunset period so that they are forced to be remade on that actually it's actually
a really good point where we can tie in why we have game regulations and how
that applies to wild deer so in victoria wild deer are considered a game animal
(10:40):
As a result of being a game animal,
anyone that hunts, in this case deer,
fall under the wildlife game regulations.
And the regulations are there to manage the hunter and not the animal.
So that's really important for people to always keep front of mind as there's
obviously a lot of political lobby groups out there that try and confuse this point for game.
(11:04):
So at this moment, we're expecting a regulatory impact statement to come out
soon. So, Sean, can you touch base on that and what we're expecting?
Obviously, it's quite a drawn-out process that we've had for this set of regulations
where we've been campaigning to bring this forward for the last four years, actually.
But it looks like we've finally gotten to a point where there is some movement at the station.
(11:28):
And the next step will be that a regulatory impact statement is released.
It's likely to be this month, possibly the end of June.
I'd hate to put a date on it because the way this has gone, the goalposts seem to continuously move.
But whilst not knowing what is actually going to be in the RIS or the Regulatory
Impact Statements, we'd be expected to cover topics fairly broadly relating
(11:51):
to or off the back of the native bird hunting firing that happened in Victoria recently.
There'll be some issues regarding deer and also
be the possibility that the regs
themselves might be split into two stages one
that's done immediately this year and comes into effect
in September and then one that's earmarked to come in later so possibly next
(12:16):
year or maybe in the year after I don't know when but later and that will probably
be more likely to cover more more complicated subjects that would require more
preparation or potentially truthing or groundwork.
So that's all a bit about what we need to discover later this month when we
hear from the RIS and the government on it.
Once it's been released, we can then delve into more detail and talk about what's
(12:40):
been proposed and any potential ramifications for deer hunters.
Certainly. So obviously this is a once-in-a-decade opportunity to provide input
as recreational hunters about what they would like to see or to voice their
opinion on what is being proposed within the regs.
It's always very valuable for hunters to contribute to this when it's a public
(13:03):
statement because everybody sees things differently and it also helps provide
an opportunity to interrogate potential changes or consequences of changes that
others may not have thought of.
So when that becomes available, we'll be sure to share it and it'll be great
for people to take a read and provide their input on it.
(13:23):
Yeah, beautiful. I think we'll wrap that up for today. Thanks again for your
time. We'll speak to you next month. More than welcome. Thanks, Paul.
The Roar on the Australian Deer Podcast. Brought to you by the Australian Deer Association.
Proudly in partnership with Stoney Creek.
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