MIKE HARRISON AND THE BUNYIP SAMBAR PROJECT

LOOKING BACK Ken Slee

The Bunyip Sambar Project was initiated on the recommendation of game biologist Max Downes who had been employed by the Australian Deer Association in 1978 to implement a research project into Australia’s then dominant deer species, the sambar, under the title The Sambar Consultancy.

Max was very aware that sambar were just about impossible to observe and study in the wild. A penned population in a bush setting would, however, give an observer a chance of investigating this very elusive species under near-wild conditions. With this in mind he recommended that the ADA set up a study enclosure in a suitable location and manipulate the environment to determine the factors that favoured sambar productivity.

The first requirement, a “suitable location”, had to be easily accessible, comprise a mix of representative bush and fringing pasture and come with a caretaker who was committed to overseeing the security and welfare of the deer and to spending time observing and recording how the deer used and responded to their environment.

Although a couple of options were investigated, ADA Life Member Mike Harrison and his wife Elaine had the ideal location behind their farm at Tonimbuk, just to the north of the small town of Bunyip in West Gippsland – a block of crown land that they held under a grazing licence. The area was state forest that was later to be included in the Bunyip State Park. It consisted of dry forested slopes running down to paperbark swamp.

The Tonimbuk area had been an early stronghold for sambar, being near the head of the Koo Wee Rup Swamp where sambar had first been liberated in the mid-1860s. A scattered population of deer persisted in the area, but numbers were very low compared with recent decades. Mike had been the most enthusiastic advocate for the project so it was fortuitous that he had the ideal location to carry it forward if permission to use the site could be obtained from the relevant government authorities.

In late 1985 ADA applied to the Victorian Department of Conservation Forests and Lands to erect an enclosure. In 1986 this permission was obtained and the Bunyip Sambar Project commenced with its aim being “supplying a facility where a small captive group of sambar can be held in near-natural conditions and studied to provide properly documented basic research material on which an extended management program for wild deer can be based.”

ADA’s Victorian branches undertook to provide the labour and funding to initiate the program with Peter Purvis being project coordinator and Mike Harrison caretaker.

During 1986 materials for a high fence were purchased and an enclosure of 6.2 hectares was built by ADA volunteers. This enclosure was enlarged to 14 hectares in 1992 to take in more forested country as well as an area of pasture on the Harrison’s farm.

The Bunyip Sambar Project was officially opened in November 1986 by Arthur Bentley and ADA junior member Graham Edebohls when two deer, a hind and a spikey were released into the enclosure. These animals were donated to the project from the Victorian Government’s Serendip Wildlife Research Station at Lara near Geelong. Two further hinds and a mature stag were obtained from Melbourne Zoo’s Werribee Wildlife Park in mid-1987 to see the project properly underway!

By 1987, the deer had settled into their enclosure and were exhibiting typical wild and elusive sambar behaviour along with an established pecking order and the first of many calves had been born.

Over the next 24 years, until the Bunyip Sambar Project was officially ended, an enormous effort went into extending and maintaining the enclosure, building observation towers, establishing a reference grid and feeding the deer when necessary. Meanwhile, Mike took the lead in studying and managing the deer while educating hunters, school groups, the wider public and government officials about sambar and how they could best be managed as a valuable resource. However, the original concept of manipulating the habitat inside the enclosure to investigate the responses of the deer never occurred as permission could not be obtained from the authorities who controlled this area of public land.

Eventually, in 2010, the Bunyip Sambar Project had to be wound up with the final twelve sambar, a mix of stags, hinds and calves, being re-homed and the fences and other structures removed.

Undoubtedly, the major outcome from the Bunyip Sambar Project was the publication in 2010 of the book Sambar The Magnificent Deer by Mike Harrison. Mike’s book was based on his daily observations over those 24 years, and is first and foremost a book about sambar, their relationship with the Australian environment, their life cycle, habits and behavioural patterns. This book has a lot to offer the thinking hunter, biologist and student of biology as much of what it contains is new and closely observed information.

Besides Mike’s book, numerous other positives came from the project. They include, along with lots of other intangibles:

Throughout the 24 years of the Bunyip Sambar Project, the drive, commitment and sacrifice of ADA Life Member Mike Harrison was a key to its success. A very accomplished sambar hunter, Mike lived by the ADA truism that “There’s more to deer than hunting”.

While Mike Harrison was the public face of the Bunyip Sambar Project, the unsung hero was undoubtedly the long suffering but eternally supportive and rarely complaining Elaine Harrison. As well as looking after the welfare of the enclosed deer on occasions when this was needed, Elaine was always ready with a cup of tea or coffee and a biscuit or cake around the kitchen table when workers or wives turned up on deer-related business or visitors arrived to discuss the latest sambar-related politics. She was also inevitably caught up in the Bunyip Sambar Project herself with one interaction with the penned sambar moving her to record a frightening event in the October 1987 edition of Australian Deer. This event highlights an aspect of sambar behaviour that an armed hunter may never experience.