Life just got a lot more dangerous for Victoria’s feral deer

Three recent bushfires that tore through western Victoria have provided authorities with a rare chance to get feral deer numbers under control.

Deer populations have exploded in Victoria, the only mainland state where deer are listed as a protected species and can’t be hunted without government approval.

Estimates vary wildly, but the Victorian government’s Deer Control Strategy suggests there are between several hundred thousand and “up to 1 million wild animals or more” on private and public land in the state.

A government spokesman confirmed authorities have stepped up aerial shooting campaigns in bushfire-scorched regions, taking advantage of canopy loss in areas such as the Grampians.

“We’re working to control wild deer populations in bushfire-impacted areas through aerial and other control methods,” the spokesman said.

“This will help native vegetation regrow post-fire and prevent over-consumption and erosion impacts from deer.”

Deer are listed as both protected wildlife and game species under Victoria’s Wildlife Act, meaning they cannot be hunted, taken or destroyed without authorisation from the environment department.

In contrast, dingoes are unprotected on public land in most of the state.

Deer species from Europe and Asia were introduced into Australia in the 19th century as game animals. In 1980, there were about 50,000 feral deer in Australia, and by 2002 the population was estimated to have grown to 200,000.

Now, the population is likely to have reached more than 2 million nationwide.

Under ideal conditions, deer populations can increase by up to 50 per cent each year, meaning a small herd of 30 deer can grow to 500 within 10 years.

Scientist Alex Maisey in Sherbrooke Forest in the Dandenongs in 2023.Credit: Jason South

But there are some good news stories. Two years ago, when this masthead visited the banks of the formerly pristine Monbulk Creek in the Dandenong Ranges with ecologist Alex Maisey, sections of the creek had collapsed into a muddy swamp.

Sambar deer had degraded the banks of the creek with their hard hooves and turned vast areas into muddy wallows, filling aquatic holes with silt and de-oxygenating the water.

In the two years since, rangers have removed what is understood to be hundreds of feral deer from the national park.

While deer scat and hoof marks were present on Friday, the creek was again flowing clear.

Maisey, pictured last week, said recent deer control measures were working to rehabilitate Monbulk Creek.Credit: Joe Armao

“It looks really promising to me,” Maisey said. “The last time we were here, the creek was literally running turbid.”

In the 2020-21 budget, the Victorian government committed to spending $18.25 million over four years on deer control, with another $4.4 million annually in ongoing funding.

Maisey urged the government to match that funding with a monitoring program to assess the effects of aerial and ground shooting.

“Because it doesn’t matter if you kill 1000 deer or a million deer, if you’re not reducing the actual impact on the value, which is all the vegetation and the animals that live here, then what are you doing?”

Peter Jacobs is chief executive of the Victorian Deer Control Community Network, which is hosted by the Invasive Species Council. Both organisations have called for deer to be removed from the Wildlife Act, and reclassified as a pest species.

“All other mainland states have now moved to declaring deer as a pest, yet Victoria continues to protect deer while supporting the highest population of feral deer in Australia,” a recent Invasive Species Council report said.

The government spokesman maintained the classification of deer as protected wildlife and game species did not affect its ability to try to control them.

“With some of the best deer hunting opportunities in Australia, Victorian deer hunters play an important role in curbing the impact of wild deer on our environment.”

“Deer are just like nothing else in the environment,” Jacobs said. “These hard-hoofed animals are so destructive to our environment. Our ecosystem has evolved in the absence of something like deer.”

Environmentalists including the Victorian National Parks Association and Environment Victoria wrote to state and federal environment groups calling for authorities to take advantage of bushfires that recently swept through vast areas of the state and denuded much of the landscape to conduct a concerted aerial shooting campaign.

VNPA campaigner Jordan Crook welcomed the news that increased aerial shooting was under way, but said: “It needs to be over several years and not just a sugar hit.”

Frontier Economics estimates that, “even under conservative assumption”, there could be 1.7 to 4.6 million feral deer in Victoria by 2050, if no significant management action is taken to reduce the number of deer.

It said the cost to the broader community of feral deer could be more than $1.5 billion to $2.2 billion over the next 30 years.

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