IMAGINE

FROM THE CHAIRMAN Col Brumley

At the start of 2025, I wrote about a new year presenting new opportunities.

Looking back at that now, it does appear to have been an understatement!

2025 has been an incredible year for recreational deer hunters, not only those who live in Victoria, but those who hunt here and, boy, is there a lot of us, with well over 50,000 licenced deer hunters grateful for the public land hunting privileges on offer.

The Parks and Public Land Legislation Amendment (Central West and Other Matters) Bill 2025 is due before the Victorian Parliament’s upper house as this edition of the magazine has gone to print, having sailed through the lower house. This is the bill that unlocks 130,000 hectares of public land, the Snowy River and Errinundra National Parks, for recreational deer hunting.

This is a landmark piece of legislation that represents a fantastic opportunity to expand recreational deer hunting to the extent that deer hunters could only dream of. But while the increase in public land access is incredible on its own, it represents so much more than that. It reflects a government that has engaged and listened to the deer hunting groups and our advocacy efforts on behalf of Australia’s deer hunters. For so long our industry has been marginalised, neglected, and at best viewed as a second-rate citizen.

I am hopeful that this is a pivotal moment that marks the turning of the tide and that we can now start to make up for lost time. There is so much good stuff that we can do in the wild deer space that benefits everyone.

An example of this is the ‘game-changing’ hut pilot that was recently announced by Steve Dimopoulos, the Minister for Environment and Outdoor Recreation. These huts are not just about deer hunters, they are for all public land users to utilise and enjoy while being in the great outdoors.

Before the Australian Deer Association introduced this concept to the government, I recalled stories to Sean about how on trips to New Zealand I’ve used these huts and how they are widely embraced by everyone and played a huge role in normalising recreational hunters with other public land users. This was a key point the ADA made when advocating for this concept.

It was fantastic to see how well received this was by the industry and deer hunters alike, the support shown has been overwhelming and we continue to thank the government for the pilot program and the expansion of public land access.

This is one of our ambitions as The Deer People, to reach a point where recreational deer hunting is used in the same sentence as recreational fishing, carries as much weight, receives its fair share of promotion, and is widely embraced as a way of life for so many of us.

We love the great outdoors, we love hunting deer, and we cherish our access to public land.

That’s who we are. The Deer People.

Looking forward to 2026, with your support we will continue to build on what we have achieved in 2025 and aim high.

Because, just like the Snowy River & Errinundra campaign, while you get more no’s than yeses, imagine if they say yes!