Report into Victorian aerial shooting raises more questions than it gives answers

8 April 2021

The Victorian Government has, this afternoon, released a summary report into Victoria’s Emergency Response Aerial Shooting Operation which followed on from the 2019/20 Summer Bushfires.

The report was prepared by the same Department which oversaw the operation, as such it is inherently partial and lacks the credibility of independent oversight.

Whilst we accept that there was a need to somewhat rush the implementation of control, there is no good reason why robust monitoring should not have followed quickly, including proper external oversight of an extraordinary use of government resources.

Notably the report fails to report on the cost of the aerial control and completely neglects to mention any measures or oversight of animal welfare in the control.

The report makes a number of poorly substantiated claims and, unsurprisingly (given that it was written by its participants) concludes that the program was an overwhelming success.

The Australian Deer Association called for well targeted deer control in the “window of opportunity” immediately following the fires, as the summary report notes.

“The control of introduced animals as soon as possible after fire takes advantage of a time-critical window of opportunity when parks and forests are closed to the public due to safety risks caused by the fire, and animals are congregating around limited food and water and have yet to disperse across the landscape. Furthermore, the reduction in vegetation provides excellent visibility of target species and greater operational efficiency in reducing numbers in priority areas - the open canopy and loss of understorey provides a management opportunity perfectly suited for aerial shooting. Given the lack of ground access to fire-affected areas for safety reasons, immediate threat management from the air is the only viable option.”

The report claims that the program effected a 50% reduction in deer abundance and density in the control area. This is based on spatial abundance modelling using the programs own operational data – it’s a spurious and untested model which should not credibly form the basis for such a claim. All up, over a period of over eleven weeks of active control, one thousand four hundred and seventy-three deer were reportedly killed – equating to one deer per one hundred and seventy-four hectares. By contrast, recreational hunters in Victoria kill around two hundred thousand deer every year.

You can read the Summary Report here.