A most frustrating discussion at work about Hunting on Public Land.

Back in July I had the following  discussion at work about Hunting on Public Land.

Guy comes up and says so what happened to hunting in national parks?
I said - its going ahead but with some unnecessarily onerous rules and restrictions.

He then proceed to lecture me on how if you want to hunt in National Parks you should have to :

1. Get a special licence to prove you know the rules
2. Register with the police or NPWS every time you are going to go into NP so they know where & when you are going to be hunting.(like lodge maps of the area)
3. Your permission should be for specific day and specific part of the national park
4. You should have to carry some sort of written permission to show Rangers/others
5.You should have to fill in a report on what you shot and submit it after each hunt so NPWS can collect information on what was shot.

So after listening to this, I said you mean:
1. Like this licence (showing my R-Licence) & the Hunter Ed Handbook
2. A written permission document like this one (showing my last State Forest Hunt Permission)
3. With maps like this? and explained the exclusion zones etc.
4. Fill out a post hunt report like this?

So it turns out he thought that the NP hunting was going to be free for all. I explained that what I had just shown him was the ONLY way you can hunt on public land legally. That this has been the law for nearly 10 years in State Forests & that they were asking for this to be applied to National Parks.

Then we got into the A B & C Zones. I had to explain that what I had just shown him was the bare minimum and only for Zone C. The A & B Zones had tighter rules.
I then had to explain that Zone C was going to be areas with less people than currently use State Forests.

Response - Fuck they did nt say any of that in the paper.!

I have subsequently had a few similar conversation in person and on twitter .....

Here are some useful links to share with people if you are talking about what is possible:

And this discussion on ABC radio

Radio National breakfast - Hunting in SA & Victorian National Parks