A RED DEER TAKEN BY MR D PORTER

FEATURE TROPHY

Red deer were introduced to Australia in the 1860s using animals of English and Scottish heritage. By the 1950s wild red deer occurred in every Australian state except Tasmania. However, except in Queensland and to a lesser extent, Victoria, these animals were present in very low numbers and according to Arthur Bentley’s book An Introduction to the Deer of Australia, these marginal populations were doomed and soon to disappear.

The red deer trophy featured in this magazine taken by Mr D Porter in southeast Queensland in 1952 is a very good example of a top-quality ‘royal’ stag of that time. As can be seen from the photo and score card the trophy head shows great length of beam, strong tines, good weight and is quite symmetrical. A Douglas Score of 278 7/8 would have placed this trophy amongst the very best of its time – to Mr Porter and his peers it was probably the stag of a lifetime!

However, from the ADA’s Top 50 Red Deer it is obvious that the world has moved on since the 1950s and at 278 7/8 DP, this great trophy does not even make it into the modern list! The commencement of deer farming in the 1970s with the introduction of ‘improved’ red deer genetics from mainland Europe heralded the end of the reign of the ‘traditional’ Victorian and Queensland red deer – a change that is regretted by quite a few!