The Hunting Party

By Matt Carney and Deb Masters

Updated June 11, 2013 10:43:00

The Hunting Party

Hunting wild animals is a growth industry and now the pressure is on to get access to national parks. (Louie Eroglu)

'The Hunting Party' - Monday 10th June 2013

Would you allow your child to use a gun to hunt and kill animals? Across Australia there are thousands of families who not only let it happen, they encourage it. Hunting is now a growth sport and the reasons are simple. For many it's exciting, selling guns is a lucrative business and hunters have new-found political muscle.

Many hunters say they do it to get back to nature and to source fresh meat. While they put ethics and safety first, it's the rogue hunter that is the problem.

Next on Four Corners reporter Matthew Carney goes bush to experience the thrill of the chase and the kill. Crucially, he tries to understand why hunters want to water down gun laws and why they are targeting National Parks to expand their sport.

In 1996 in the wake of the Port Arthur Massacre, then-Prime Minister John Howard risked his political reputation by introducing legislation that banned assault-style guns and dramatically restricted the importation and ownership of semi-automatic weapons. Howard's reforms demanded all guns be registered and the government spent millions of taxpayer dollars in a radical buy-back scheme. Gun ownership fell and so too did violent gun-related deaths.

Now firearm ownership is on the increase again and part of the reason is the increased popularity of hunting. Most hunters say they want the government to open up National Parks for sport and they now have the political power to back their demands. In NSW, the Shooters and Fishers Party has the balance of power in the State's upper house. Some of their key demands involve making guns easier to obtain, and winding back restrictions on some semi-automatic weapons.

"I think in certain contexts semi-automatics are useful in the right hands, in the right way they're not a danger to anybody." - Robert Borsack, NSW Shooters and Fishers Party

It's a demand that concerns many in the city, but it's the Shooters and Fishers' other major demand that alarms people in the bush. The Party, having worked to gain access to State Forests, now wants hunters to gain access to National Parks. Robert Borsack claims it would help eradicate feral animals, but others who work in State Forests say it will result in people being killed.

"I'll be honest with you, I'm lucky I'm not dead and some of the blokes are too and they refuse to work in these areas ... it's too dangerous." - Feral-animal trapper

In spite of these warnings, hunting permits are on the rise and less experienced people are acquiring a license to kill. The complicating factor for those seeking to dilute gun laws and expand the sport is that less experienced hunters are more likely to harm themselves and others. The Shooters and Fishers say they want one Senator in each Australian State after the next election. If they are successful, the major parties will be forced to deal directly with this issue.

THE HUNTING PARTY, reported by Matthew Carney and presented by Kerry O'Brien goes to air on Monday 10th June at 8.30pm on ABC1. It is replayed on Tuesday 11th June at 11.35pm. It can also be seen on ABC News 24 at 8.00pm Saturday, on ABC iview and at


THE HUNTING PARTY - Monday 10 June 2013

KERRY O'BRIEN, PRESENTER: For hunters, a clean kill is the ultimate thrill.


KERRY O'BRIEN: But popularity means more inexperienced hunters, more guns, more danger.

DICK GILL: Hunting skills are rudimentary. They're fairly basic.

IAN 'BOOTS' EGGLETON: Look they're just out there just to shoot whatever bloody moves.

KERRY O'BRIEN: Australia's renewed love affair with guns and hunting. Welcome to Four Corners.

It's 17 years since Martin Bryant gunned down 35 innocent people at Port Arthur, and Prime Minister John Howard introduced some of the most stringent gun controls in the world. Almost 700,000 fire arms were destroyed in the gun buyback scheme. Having opposed many of those controls at the time, the Gun Lobby is now bouncing back with the number of registered guns and licensed gun owners soaring.

There are now an estimated 730,000 licensed gun owners across the country and millions of guns. The Shooters and Fishers party holds the balance of power in the New South Wales Upper House, and it's planning to run Senate candidates in all states and the Northern Territory. Bob Katter's Australian party wants a relaxation of gun controls, and has three seats in the Queensland parliament. And in WA the Shooters and Fishers also have an Upper House seat. In New South Wales hunters are allowed in state forests, and the Premier Barry O'Farrell, has now given them the go ahead in the state's 77 national parks and reserves.

The New South Wales Government funded Game Council is promoting what it calls 'conservation hunting' and is encouraging families and particularly women to take it up. On the other hand opponents of these changes say they're seeing more and more rogue hunters, and are fearful that tragic accidents will occur. With the national parks due to be open to shooters later this year, reporter Matthew Carney went bush with hunters to hear and see what attracts them, and what safeguards they practice.

MATTHEW CARNEY, REPORTER: Wonnangatta National Park sits high in the heart of Victoria's alpine country, an isolated wilderness. Hunters from all over Australia make a pilgrimage here to chance their skills against an elusive but most prized prey the Sambar deer. It's early and a cold morning. John Clapham and his wife Kath with their young children are here to hunt.

JOHN CLAPHAM: We'll go up and we'll have a look for the stag and those couple hinds again.

MATTHEW CARNEY: John and Kath are skilled hunters but it took John three years before he bagged his first Sambar Deer.

JOHN CLAPHAM: They're probably the most difficult animal that we have in Australia to Hunt.

MATTHEW CARNEY: The biggest challenge?

JOHN CLAPHAM: The biggest challenge. Yeah, and that's what it's all about. It's not about the kill it's about the hunt.

MATTHEW CARNEY: And when the New South Wales Government opens 77 national parks and reserves to hunting, they believe they'll all be model hunters like John and Kath.

STEVE MATTHEWS: Are you going to come out today and come for a hunt? And we will see if we can get ourselves. A deer

MATTHEW CARNEY: Good friends Steven Matthews and his son Will, will also hunt. In most states in Australia children can shoot a gun legally when they turn 12 and the number of young shooters getting hunting licenses has nearly doubled in the last couple of years.

STEVE MATTHEWS: Yeah I introduced him to it and got him a minor's permit when he was 12 and now his game permit. And he's quite keen to walk around the mountains all day chasing deer so...

MATTHEW CARNEY: Last year Will killed his first Sambar deer.

WILL MATTHEWS: We were across the valley and we got honked and you could see the stag there and I took a shot at it, got him. It took us a while to get over to it. Wasn't that big actually, didn't have any antlers.

MATTHEW CARNEY: How did you feel?

WILL MATTHEWS: It was sensational getting my first deer. Actually that Sambar was the first deer I ever shot.

MATTHEW CARNEY: What did you feel for the animal?

WILL MATTHEWS: Oh well, you gotta feel some sort of compassion you know, you're ending their life and what not. But you gotta get over that.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Hunting is one of the reasons gun ownership is at record levels. There's now nearly three million registered guns in Australia.

KATH CLAPHAM: John I'll need ammunition.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Kath hopes her kids will become hunters too.

KATH CLAPHAM: I love the fact that I'm going to bring an animal home and feed my family with it. I know where it's come from and I've great respect for the animals. But then there's the emotional side when you have taken the deer and you sit down with it and you put a twig of bush in its mouth and say "thank you very much I'm going to take you home now."

JOHN CLAPHAM: C'mon let's go

JOHN CLAPHAM: To operate safely you've got to you know, put yourself in a position where you are not going to take risk.

MATTHEW CARNEY: What do you mean by that?

JOHN CLAPHAM: Well you identify your target every time, yeah.

MATTHEW CARNEY: I mean you can't take out all the risk, can you?

JOHN CLAPHAM: Life has risk, life has risks, yeah.

MATTHEW CARNEY: As they head into the valley John comes across a shrine to a fallen hunter.

JOHN CLAPHAM: What I know, that it happened is that he was sitting under a tree and he was wearing a Driza-bone and a Driza-bone hat from what I understand, and the shape he took was of a deer um lying down underneath the bush and his friend accidentally shot him.

MATTHEW CARNEY: So his friend was nearby?

JOHN CLAPHAM: Yeah, they were hunting together.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Today hunters wear blaze orange for safety, it's a colour deer don't recognise. Camped on the edge of the forest are the Vandenbrands, three generations of hunters.

MATTHEW CARNEY: How old is it?

WAYNE VANDENBRAND: Four or five year old.

MATTHEW CARNEY: And good meat?

WAYNE VANDENBRAND: Yeah, good meat

GARRY VANDENBRAND: Oh yeah, a lot of fat on it

MATTHEW CARNEY: They've had early luck. Yesterday Wayne shot this 200 kilogram doe and the lean rich meat will provide for their family for months.

WAYNE VANDENBRAND: Yeah I was walking in a late, late in the afternoon and I looked with my binoculars and I seen a doe standing there. And I had me cammo gear over, over me face and I, I was looking and it looked at me and then it put its head down, so I put me gun up and I went boom, just above its shoulder and went through its heart, and it took off and just fell beside me and died, yeah.

MATTHEW CARNEY: How long it take to die?

WAYNE VANDENBRAND: Ah, oh it took about a minute. Adrenalin was pushing it, made it run when I, when I shot it and then, then we just, just gutted it. The bullet entered in through the rib cage and obviously it's come out the other side here. It's come out here. Yes it took the heart out, heart and lungs out yeah.

MATTHEW CARNEY: And a quick kill, humane kill do you think?

WAYNE VANDENBRAND: Oh yeah quick kill yeah. It didn't know that I was there.

GARRY VANDENBRAND: He's a fairly old stag.

MATTHEW CARNEY: And this morning Wayne's dad Garry shot an old Stag. They'll take the meat but also its head for a trophy.

GARRY VANDENBRAND: Oh well just been hunting up the gully over there and just as I crossed over I spotted him on standing on the side of the gully there, side on. He was just getting a bit of sun.

MATTHEW CARNEY: There's about 100 hunters in Wonnangatta today stalking Sambar deer. It's one of the last weeks before winter sets in and the gates to the park close. Garry's been camping at this site for 40 years and believes more hunters means more risk.

GARRY VANDENBRAND: You get some idiots in here shoot at anything and that's why the orange hat is required.

MATTHEW CARNEY: So what do they do? If they shot at anything?

GARRY VANDENBRAND: They see something move and they'll shot at it. They think it's a deer rather than just making sure that it is an animal rather than a person as you could see by that little plaque over there.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Yeah I believe you...

GARRY VANDENBRAND: Yeah I knew the guy, yeah.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Do you think that thing can happen again at all?

GARRY VANDENBRAND: It could, yeah. People with guns, like I said some people they just fire at anything. I was in here a couple year ago after they opened it up again in November and I was just hunting up a gully, and the next minute a shot went off about 100 yards beside me.

MATTHEW CARNEY: John Clapham moves towards a ridge where the deer will be catching the early morning sun.

MATTHEW CARNEY: So you think we're getting closer to them?

JOHN CLAPHAM: Well we are, we're right in amongst it. I'd be very surprised if something is not within a 100 metres.

MATTHEW CARNEY: A hundred metres, really that close?


MATTHEW CARNEY: We stay downwind because deer identify each other and potential threats like us by scent.

JOHN CLAPHAM: Come, come, come.


JOHN CLAPHAM: It's a calf or something there

MATTHEW CARNEY: A calf in the bushes?

JOHN CLAPHAM: Yeah, he's watching us but we can't see him. But you can see the bush moved and there's no wind and there are no birds in there.

MATTHEW CARNEY: So it's all about outsmarting the animal

JOHN CLAPHAM: That's right, yep.

MATTHEW CARNEY: John Clapham has been coming to Wonnangatta for more than a decade and in that time he's killed about 40 Sambar deer.

JOHN CLAPHAM: You develop a real love for the animal and, it just becomes ah, more or less and obsession. Every time you stop and you think about the your time in the bush and you think maybe I should've done this differently, maybe I should've moved with the wind in this gully, maybe I should, moved against it, yeah.

MATTHEW CARNEY: What about people who'd say "if you respect and love the animal so much why kill it?"

JOHN CLAPHAM: It's my food. Mm. Yeah, I don't waste my food. And it's my culture.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Later in the afternoon on the other side of the ridge, Cath Clapham goes on a hunt with her Steyr rifle.

KATH CLAPHAM: I think it looks great, it's got timber all the way to the muzzle and um got very nice detail on the, the barrel, I think it's a real lady's gun.

MATTHEW CARNEY: A lady's gun? Why's that?

KATH CLAPHAM: Oh, because I think every woman needs to have something beautiful in her arms, the Swarovski scope, every lady likes Swarovski. And it's very accurate.

MATTHEW CARNEY: And I heard you're a, you're a pretty sharp shooter yourself, how do you rate yourself as a hunter?

KATH CLAPHAM: I, I've been doing it long enough to know what mistakes I make. But I do know that if I point this at an animal, that it, I'm a hundred percent sure that that animal is going to have a very quick death.

MATTHEW CARNEY: You're that good?

KATH CLAPHAM: Yes. (Laughs)

MATTHEW CARNEY: Nights coming, back at base camp everyone is empty handed. There's been no kill today but that's hunting. Hunting is on the rise across the country.

(Sound of gunshot)

MATTHEW CARNEY: And this is the man responsible for much of that increase, Robert Borsak, Member of Parliament, accountant and sharp shooter.

(Sound of gun shooting)

MATTHEW CARNEY: Borsak is a powerful man. His party, the Shooters and Fishers, holds the balance of power in the Upper House of the New South Wales Parliament.


(Sound of gun shots)

MATTHEW CARNEY: Today he's on safe ground in the Hunter Valley

ROBERT BORSAK: As far as politics is concerned where can I start?

MATTHEW CARNEY: The community of Cessnock has a high concentration of gun ownership.

ROBERT BORSAK: What's going on at the moment is a war of cultures, it's a war of change. It's a battle I suppose that's occurring in politics and in the media.

(File footage: Port Arthur shooting, 1996)

MAN: These people up here...

(Sound of gun shots).

MAN: You heard the gunshots? Live action here at Port Arthur. Apparently there are police here.

WOMAN: We should have kept the phone with us.

MATTHEW CARNEY: For gun owners in Australia everything changed in 1996, when Martin Bryant killed 35 people at Port Arthur with an assault style weapon.

(Footage from gun rally, 1996)

MAN: John Howard.

(People booing)


MATTHEW CARNEY: In response the then Prime Minister John Howard introduced some of the toughest gun laws in the western world.

JOHN HOWARD: I'm sorry about that but there is no other way, there is no other way.

MATTHEW CARNEY: He wanted to put an end to mass shootings.

(Footage from meeting, 1996)

TIM FISCHER, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER 1996-99: Hi, no ABC? I hope it will be a peaceful meeting.

(Crowd applauds)

MATTHEW CARNEY: As leader of the National Party at the time Tim Fischer had perhaps the hardest task convincing farmers and rural folk to give up their guns.

TIM FISCHER: It is about taking out of the suburbs of Australia the semi-automatics and automatics that should not be in the suburbs of Australia in the first place.

TIM FISCHER: People want their pound of flesh and ah you fronted, you weren't scared, you spoke, you got booed, you got heckled. Ah, but we had to stand there in the public square and say, this is why we're doing this, because we believe that it will be a more harmonised, safer approach for the nation.

ROBERT BORSAK: Look I've got nothing in common with Port Arthur. I've got nothing in common with um ah, the ah, the madman that did it, um I just, I think people are shooters are now looking at themselves as being ah, a ordinary cross section of people and I think we as a, as certainly as a state and perhaps as a nation is starting to get over it.

MATTHEW CARNEY: John Howard banned assault style semi automatic rifles and pump action shot guns. Almost 700,000 were destroyed in a buy back scheme.

ROBERT BORSAK: And the Government with our agreement has decided to do a review.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Now Robert Borsak wants to put some semi automatics back in the hands of hunters and recreational shooters.

ROBERT BORSAK: I think in certain contexts semi-automatics are useful um, I had a Browning BAR 338 um and I've had Woods Masters automatic self-loading firearms and in the right hands in the right way ah they're not a danger to anybody. I think that's really what you know really what we should be doing coming to grips with the people that have them rather than just the various categories by themselves.

MATTHEW CARNEY: We'll see more deaths?

TIM FISCHER: We'll see more deaths if you get on a slippery slope of tearing up the gun laws of 1996.

MATTHEW CARNEY: In the foothills of the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales Robert Borsak is hunting with his good mate Andy Mallen. They're in the Maragle State Forest. Borsak brought his favourite gun, a 338 Winchester Magnum.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Tell us about your gun, I mean what type, what's the gun?

ROBERT BORSAK: This is again, this is a rifle designed really for shooting larger, larger animals. I shot a brown bear in '97 with it in Alaska.

MATTHEW CARNEY: So tell us about that?

ROBERT BORSAK: Well it was a matter of just looking. We were hunting, basically just hunting in areas where we knew there were some reasonably large bears. We'd actually seen some bears but they weren't large enough, so we walked away from them. We saw some sows and cubs again they weren't legal to shoot, so we walked away from them. And we walked onto a nice bear, nice old boar bear and shot him at about 15 or 16 feet in the brush. I killed him with the first shot but I put two more into him to be sure. With a dangerous game the general rule is always put a couple of extra bullets into the animal to make sure they are in fact dead.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Borsak says he had a permit to kill the bear. The Shooters and Fishers party in New South Wales has pushed through 18 amendments to firearm legislation that cuts red tape and makes it easier to use and own guns.

ANDY MALLEN: It's got plenty of power for deer.

MATTHEW CARNEY: And humanely, like in terms of trying to take the deer out humanly?

ANDY MALLEN: I'm using a Woodley bonded core soft point bullet, 250 grain, it will be doing 2,500 feet per second. It will open to double its diameter in the first 75 ml. It will impart a couple of thousand foot pounds of energy to animal's heart and lung area. It will kill a deer very quickly.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Today they'll be hunting for deer but will take a shot at any feral cat, pig, fox or dog in the area.

ROBERT BORSAK: It's a very much part of life and knowing that you are alive, rather than sitting in an office at parliament house or at business. It's life. It really makes me feel alive and the longer I can spend out here, the happier I am.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Borsak wants to spread his agenda federally and at the next election he wants a senator in every state of Australia. In 2006 four million acres of state forests were opened to recreational hunting. Borsak claims to keep feral animals under control.

ROBERT BORSAK: What we're doing is trying to ah, lessen the impact of um introduced animals whether they're feral or game animals and in that sense try to give more of an opportunity to the native species to ah get back a chance to survive I suppose. Now a lot of damage has been done over nearly two hundred years over various parts of the country and these species, the non-native species are very invasive.

MATTHEW CARNEY: The idea that hunters can be conservationist is also been used as a justification for allowing 20,000 hunters into national parks in New South Wales. The political reality is that Borsak won this major concession from the Government. The Shooters and Fishers party provided vital support for the sale of the state's electricity generators.

ROBERT BORSAK: Now no one's for one moment saying that ah, we'll go out there and be able to eliminate all those animals, it's just not that easy. Ah, but I think if you could get a broad scale, um broad scale conservation hunting done by volunteers ah, you will have an impact. There's just no two ways about it.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Later in the afternoon they venture out again. Borsak believes the risks will be minimal to the 34 million people who walk, picnic, bike ride and bird watch in the state's national parks each year. Hunters have to be registered and licensed before they can fire a shot.

ROBERT BORSAK: We, background checking people as far as firearms are concerned. I think that's perfectly rational and normal. If you can't get a firearm's license you can't get a game license, certainly not for hunting with a firearm. Um if people are of the wrong character um they are, should be and are excluded from the programs.

MATTHEW CARNEY: At the end of the day Andy and Robert haven't seen a deer or a feral animal just a few wallabies.

ANDY MALLEN: Native animals and they are all protected. We can only shoot those that are declared game and feral under the act.

SUE LYONS: Come on, come on Trix.

MATTHEW CARNEY: But the community that borders the Maragle state forest has a very different story to tell. Sue Lyons walks her dogs at the southern end of the forest where Robert and Andy were hunting. Sue is not a hunter. These days she wears blaze orange clothing so she won't be shot.

SUE LYONS: I was out walking and someone shot over your top vineyard and I thought "Mm okay, that was from out of the parks." I was just between our bridge and the ramp and there were another five shots which it was concerning. One was so close it actually sheared off a rock on the track that I'd already been up and around and I thought "oh God okay, is this what it's coming to?"

MATTHEW CARNEY: Sue Lyons and local farmers living in the valley have gathered in Dick Gill's living room.

DICK GILL: My daughter and I went through to the kitchen to get a cuppa tea and we heard a shot and the boyfriend said "did you hear the bullet hit the wall behind me?" He was standing right here. And he heard the bullet hit the wall and then he heard the shot a second later, so the shot could only have come from the north where the pine forest is.

GREG LYONS: The big problem is you're getting urban people coming in here...

MATTHEW CARNEY: They share a common problem. Recreational hunters illegally shooting on their land.

JAMES CRAIN: We've had people where we live and told them "no," and ended up catching them out the back on the same property. They just had to get on there, and all they wanted to do was find a big deer.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Their properties back on to Maragle state forests and Kosciuszko National Park. Dick Gill's farm is only 400 metres from the pines. He farms cattle and deer.

DICK GILL: We have lost deer we've lost 20 or 30. Every year we've had to seek an exclusion zone to, to keep the hunters with high powered firearms away from the working area and the homestead and the workshop buildings. But it's dangerous because these rifles have a range of five kilometres.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Dick Gill worked on cattle stations in the northern territory for most of his life. He hunted feral animals, dingoes and wild dogs. Dick's an experienced hunter.

DICK GILL: When this started in 2006 it was quite benign. Hunters seemed to be more experienced hunters than they are now. The hunters that we're seeing here now their skills, hunting skills are rudimentary, they're fairly basic. They mainly use high calibre firearms. I don't think they understand the nuances of hunting such an animal in this environment, you know the wind, the light, the lay of the land, the cover, that sort of thing. They just do anything to get a kill.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Two weeks ago this decapitated deer was discovered on private land. Another was found about 50 metres away. There were five in total on this property. On a neighbouring farm, James McDougall wasn't surprised to find this deer carcass.

JAMES MCDOUGALL: They just drove straight past us like into the national park, very brazen, just desperate to shoot something. We had the binoculars so we could see them get out of their vehicle. They had a couple of rifles. We then went back to the house. My wife actually heard the gun shot as she was outside. The next day I went down and discovered this deer that that's had its head brutally chopped off for antlers. The whole body's just been left to rot.

GREG LYONS: They think they're in the wilderness is the long and the short of it. And they're not, it's a - we live here its own home for God sake.

MATTHEW CARNEY: The locals have taken matters into their own hands. They wrote a letter to the NSW minister detailing 30 examples where hunters broke the law. The minister in turn instructed the hunting regulator The Game Council to investigate. It's the agency responsible for licensing recreational hunters.

DICK GILL: The instruction was clear that they should consult with us personally and interview each person as to the veracity of the statement. That hasn't happened.

JOHN MUMFORD, GAME COUNCIL NSW CHAIRMAN: Look I don't believe that we've done nothing about that. Ah, we're very active on our compliance role down there. But I'm quite sure if you can give me a detailed list of those incidents I will be able to give you a detailed response to each one of them.

MATTHEW CARNEY: One would expect as the Game Council that considering the serious nature of the allegations that you would have investigated?

JOHN MUMFORD: And, and we would have investigated and what I'm saying to you is I don't know.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Well they're saying you didn't.

JOHN MUMFORD: I don't know the specifics of each of those.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Many farmers in the area believe conservation hunting has little impact on local feral animal populations.

DICK GILL: We didn't ask for help with Game Council controlling our feral pest and we prefer to go back to the old way which, which worked very well for decades and would still work.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Ian 'Boots' Eggleton was responsible for controlling feral pest the old way in the Maragle Valley. He says the new way doesn't work and it's dangerous.

IAN 'BOOTS' EGGLETON: I've been shot at, bloody, I've had bullets whistle past me head you know when I was setting traps. I've found dead animals, you know like native species non-target they're not even supposed to be shooting.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Boots is a professional trapper and shooter. A pest animal contractor. He travels into national parks to the fringe country where livestock and endangered native animals are prey to wild dogs, cats, foxes and dingoes.

IAN 'BOOTS' EGGLETON: They're very hard animals to control because they're extremely smart and they move around in such big areas, cover so much country.

MATTHEW CARNEY: But Boots won't venture into state forests where recreational hunters shoot.

IAN 'BOOTS' EGGLETON: I'll be honest with you, I'm lucky I'm not dead and some of my blokes are too and they refuse to work in these areas, that's why I gave up the contracts. You know, like it's just too dangerous.

MATTHEW CARNEY: The day before Boots laid rubber lined traps. He's checking to see if an animal is snared.

IAN 'BOOTS' EGGLETON: Yeah I'm pretty sure this one's got a dog in it. The scuff marks from the footprints and there's a bit of dog faeces here.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Boots has trapped a dingo.

IAN 'BOOTS' EGGLETON: There he is just there. You know, like you have to destroy them because there close to the sheep area. But I certainly don't get any pleasure out of destroying a dingo they're a beautiful animal.

MATTHEW CARNEY: With one shot to the head he'll kill the animal. Death is instant.

(Sound of gunshot)

MATTHEW CARNEY: Decades of experience has taught him this is the most humane method. He doesn't accept recreational hunters can do the same.

IAN 'BOOTS' EGGLETON: You're talking about people from all walks of life coming out here in the bush with a firearm and destroying animals humanely. Do you think that's really going to happen? I don't bloody think so. Look they're just out there just to shoot whatever bloody moves. You know like they're not out here - they don't respect the animal.

MATTHEW CARNEY: In a privately owned forest a fox is trapped, and killed.

(Sound of gunshot)

MATTHEW CARNEY: Boots fears hunters in national parks will scatter feral animals like foxes, forcing them further onto private land.

IAN 'BOOTS' EGGLETON: So most of you pests are on the on the fringes anyway. So um if you go back behind there and you're pushing out trying to shoot these animals you're going to be pushing them further and further out into farmland. National parks were created to protect endangered species and, and flora and fauna. By letting all these people in you're going to endanger everything that national parks stand for. And in and to me it's just ethically wrong. Their aim is to get the deer, that trophy head so how you can call it pest control is beyond me.

ROBERT BORSAK: If Mr Boots is such a good ah feral animal controller, why are there increasing numbers of feral deer and all the other animals, foxes and rabbits, which he doesn't by the way do anything to control whatsoever, nobody's doing anything to control, why is that population continuing to grow?

MATTHEW CARNEY: At his home in Sydney, Robert Borsak is showing me his trophy room.

MATTHEW CARNEY: How many busts do you have here?

ROBERT BORSAK: How many heads and the various mounts, probably 50 or 60.


ROBERT BORSAK: Yeah, all up.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Why so many?

ROBERT BORSAK: Oh I think it's just a process of eclectic collection over many, many years.

MATTHEW CARNEY: He's travelled all over the world to get these trophies. Robert believes that the hunter, the killer is in us all.

ROBERT BORSAK: Humans kill for a living right from the very start. And our Agrarian society has only been us for probably the last 15,000 years but probably the previous million years, well 99 per cent of our existence if you like, we killed for a living.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Africa is a favourite hunting ground and in 2007 he killed a massive bull elephant.

ROBERT BORSAK: I thought he was actually going to step straight through the vines to me, but he didn't in the end, he stepped to my left and stepped right up in front of me. Standing sort of literally like that in front of me, so I pulled the rifle up and went 'bang' and he went straight down.

MATTHEW CARNEY: So at that point what were you feeling, was it mixed emotions?

ROBERT BORSAK: I think I - yeah, there's always an element of sadness just straight after you do it. But there's an element of achievement when you do it.

MATTHEW CARNEY: The Zimbabwean government gave Borsak the license to kill the elephant. It was classified as a pest for destroying farmland.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Some people are going to be enraged that you shot an elephant aren't they?

ROBERT BORSAK: Of course, of course. I suppose they will and they are entitled to it, it's their opinion. But...

MATTHEW CARNEY: So how do you justify it to them?

ROBERT BORSAK: I can't justify it to them culturally they are different to me. They don't have a culture of wanting to participate in those processes, so unfortunately that's their loss and my gain.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Robert Borsak is defiant. It's been his life's mission to change people's thinking about hunting.

ROBERT BORSAK: If images of me with dead elephants, and dead sheep, and dead pigs, and everything else confronts them, then don't look at them. It's my culture, it's our culture, and we're not going away. It's as simple as that.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Borsak has succeeded in spreading hunting in Australia and the primary instrument for that has been the Game Council which was set up in 2002. He was one of the founding fathers and a chairman of the council. In the Central Tablelands of New South Wales a deer education workshop is underway. Most here have never killed a deer but they've come to learn the ethical and safe way before they do.

ANDREW MORIARTY, GAME COUNCIL CEO: You're looking at the length of the face, you're looking at the gut, you're looking at the dewlap the whole range of things to help you to pick out the right animal out that you're there hunting for.

DEER WORKSHOP SPEAKER: Don't wander off in the heat in the moment after seeing a deer mark and you all get excited or something like that.

MATTHEW CARNEY: The Game Council says it can remove the rogue element through training and education. And the R license guarantees responsible hunting.

JOHN MUMFORD: We have very tight controls to monitor who goes onto public land. Ah, it's only our R licensed hunters. We limit one hunter per 400 hectares. And we get quite a lot of data from hunters when they go on there, so if anyone misbehaves in a state forest we can actually track that person down very, very quickly.

MATTHEW CARNEY: To get an R license you have to be a member of an approved hunting club and a licensed gun owner. It's an open book test and shooting skills are not assessed.

MATTHEW CARNEY: You don't test for gun proficiency or marksmanship do you?

JOHN MUMFORD: No we don't.

MATTHEW CARNEY: How can you make claims, that this is a, is a methodology in a system for efficient removal of feral animals if you don't know if they can actually hit the animals?

JOHN MUMFORD: What I can say is that the last seven years of our experience on public land, on forest corporation of state in New South Wales is that our people have been very effective in removing feral animals on that estate to the point where, ah, forest corporation, the only pest animal control programme they currently run is wild dogs.

JOHN MUMFORD: The best hunter from tree stance, they're a small deer in long grass

MATTHEW CARNEY: The Game Council has been the source of persistent controversy. Some say it's little more than a taxpayer funded lobby group promoting hunting. An acting CEO Greg McFarlane, has been charged and investigated for illegally hunting. He's now before the courts.

JOHN MUMFORD: It's been very disappointing. Ah, I'm quite sure that, um, our public image has taken a hit on that. But I point out that the actions of an individual don't, ah, in any way impede Game Council's ability to discharge its statutory obligations under the Act.

MATTHEW CARNEY: While the hunters here are keen to learn it's the ones that aren't present that could be a risk.

DEER WORKSHOP SPEAKER: Let's have a little closer look at these deer pellets.

MATTHEW CARNEY: There's about 300,000 hunters in Australia and these courses only attract a determined few.

ROBERT BORSAK: Someone will always do something wrong. There's no two - that's human nature. What we have to try to do is ah build within people ah the ability to judge themselves as to whether they're doing the right thing or the wrong thing and ah, that takes time.

MATTHEW CARNEY: As night falls Stephen Whitehead stands on a windy ridge. This is one of his favourite places in New South Wales. His property below borders the Jenolan Karst National park on three fronts. An endless view of world heritage wilderness.

STEPHEN WHITEHEAD: We consider ourselves to be very fortunate that we have this property because we intend to look after the animals and respect nature just like is done through the reserve itself.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Tonight Stephen Whitehead is not on the ridge to watch the sunset. He's here to patrol. His enemy, recreational hunters illegally shooting in the National Park.

STEPHEN WHITEHEAD: It is a war, because you're dealing with people who come and hunt with weapons. We're in a world heritage area conservation reserve. It's being treated like a recreational park for hunters. And I am on the frontline of this defence so it is a war.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Stephen's weapons of choice are surveillance cameras. When he spots an intruder he approaches and warns them they are breaking the law.

MATTHEW CARNEY: So you found some roo shooters did you?

STEPHEN WHITEHEAD: Yeah on a Friday night about a month ago.

STEPHEN WHITEHEAD: There in Jenolan reserve right now. I think the cameras stopped working cause it bumped.

MATTHEW CARNEY: And what did you get on film exactly?

STEPHEN WHITEHEAD: Well, what I got on film was them stating that they were shooting and hunting. Because they had been shooting up in the pine forest, and that's what drew me here in the first place, I heard the gunshots. And also hunting because they had pig dogs in the back so they were doing both and they were in a reserve. And they were shining their roo light around because they had a spotlight on the roof and hunting right here in the reserve where you saw those kangaroos just jumping past, that's what they were shooting those kangaroos.

MATTHEW CARNEY: And so, totally illegal is it?

STEPHEN WHITEHEAD: Completely illegal.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Stephen stays our til the early hours of the morning. His wife Gabrielle waits at home.

GABRIELLE WHITEHEAD: What worries me is if there's people out there shooting, now whether it's accidental or on purpose you know, I'm very, very frightened that one night he won't come home.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Stephen and Gabrielle moved here almost a year ago. Tired of having his gates broken and his land trespassed Stephen installed cameras at strategic points around his property. It was Australia Day this year when Stephen heard a series of gunshots coming from the reserve near to the bicentennial national walking trail.

(Sound of gun shots)

STEPHEN WHITEHEAD: I basically get in my car, turn the camera on, rush down to where I think it's coming from which is in the middle of a reserve.

MATTHEW CARNEY: The shots were coming from a high powered hunting rifle.

STEPHEN WHITEHEAD: So I drove up the track, and lo and behold, I come to the top of the hill and there's this black four wheel drive.

MATTHEW CARNEY: The camera mounted in Stephen's car records two men illegally hunting.

STEPHEN WHITEHEAD: You do realise that's a reserve, you do realise you're shooting in a reserve?

HUNTER: In a what, sorry?


HUNTER: A reserve?


HUNTER: Look we're Game Council, we're licensed I did not know, honest to God. I'm gone, I'm gone.

STEPHEN WHITEHEAD: If I see you back in here again, if I see this car anywhere around I'll report you for this event because I've got you on camera.

HUNTER: I'm very sorry I did not know.

STEPHEN WHITEHEAD: I live just there, I can hear you a mile away.

HUNTER: That's why I thought we weren't doing anything wrong, we've got R license, we've got a booking in a state forest

STEPHEN WHITEHEAD: That's a reserve

HUNTER: I didn't know where the reserve is, because on the map it doesn't have no boundaries.

STEPHEN WHITEHEAD: If the Game Council were serious they would make getting a gun license much more difficult. They would make the training much more difficult so that no one accidentally stumbled into a reserve. That you couldn't go hunting or shooting unless you had a proper map, that and you couldn't be lost because everything was clearly laid out, and if you were lost you shouldn't shoot. If you didn't know where you are or where you were, if you don't know where you are, don't shoot.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Stephen Whitehead hasn't seen the men since.

ROBERT BORSAK: What you've got here is a stag as it comes out of the field

MATTHEW CARNEY: At his Sydney home Robert Borsak is sizing up a deer carcass. He'll leave it hanging in his backyard for four days to age the meat.

MATTHEW CARNEY: So this is the deer you didn't get when you went hunting huh?

ROBERT BORSAK: This is the deer we didn't get, no, that's right! We saw a few running around but when we were after them we couldn't get them.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Whether he gets a kill or not, Robert Borsak is a hunter.

ROBERT BORSAK: It's in my genes to be a fighter and I think over a period of time we will prevail in this culture war that's going on. We've got the political vehicle to do it. I think we've got the backing of the hunters and Shooters and Fishers. There's a yearning need for the people living in our large cities right across Australia they're looking to get out and breath and I think we can do it for them.

KERRY O'BRIEN: Getting out and breathing and shooting things.

Next week on Four Corners, the story of the extraordinary journey taken by North Korean defectors, as they try to escape the horrors of the Hermit kingdom. Until then, goodnight.


Background Information


Concerns raised as some Victorian gun-owners stockpile firearms | Herald Sun | 5 Jun 2013 - Victoria's top firearms owners have collected an average arsenal of 80 weapons each, which has raised concerns among advocates of gun control.

Gun crime wave prompts calls to tighten laws | ABC News | 2 Jun 2013 - The gun control lobby believes a wave of gun crime in Tasmania is evidence gun laws need tightening.

Farm shooting sparks hunting law debate | ABC News | 23 May 2013 - The National Parks Association is using an alleged shooting incident involving hunters near Orange to highlight why the activity should not be allowed in some New South Wales reserves.

Hunters shoot at property owner | Central Western Daily | 22 May 2013 - Orange police are looking for two men who shot at a Springside farmer yesterday morning when he caught them illegally hunting on his property. The 43-year-old landowner was bailed up at gunpoint and ordered to drop his mobile phone which he was using to take a photograph of the offenders' number plate.

LISTEN: Premier assures hunting in NSW national parks safe as fires | ABC SE NSW | 15 May 2013 - In response to community concerns about the introduction of recreational hunting in NSW national parks Premier Barry O'Farrell has defended the safety of the program, comparing it to the way hazard reduction burns are conducted safely.

Hunting renewed for forests, despite Game Council cloud | SMH | 3 May 2013 - Recreational hunting has been approved in 180 state forests for a further 10 years despite a cloud hanging over the governance of the Game Council NSW, responsible for overseeing the program.

Blow to Game Council as leaders charged over hunt | SMH | 7 Apr 2013 - The Game Council's role as the guardian of ethical hunting has been further damaged after a senior manager and a longtime volunteer were charged with a total of 17 offences relating to illegal hunting and trespassing on private land.

WATCH: Rangers call for bulletproof protection | ABC News | 4 Apr 2013 - National parks staff are calling for the New South Wales Government to issue them with bulletproof vests to protect them against stray bullets fired by amateur hunters.

LISTEN: Who are the Shooters and Fishers party - and what do they stand for? | ABC Perth | 11 Mar 2013 - There's only a few seats left to allocate, and an unlikely newcomer to the WA political arena is set to snap up one of the remaining spots in the Legislative Council.

LISTEN: Former Shooters Party executive opposes hunting in parks | ABC SE NSW | 20 Feb 2013 - Jim Pirie makes it clear that he is not anti-hunting and not a greenie, but the former vice-chairman of the Shooters Party is firmly opposed to the introduction of hunting in NSW national parks.

LISTEN: Guns are back | Background Briefing | 8 Jan 2012 - Gun clubs report lots of new members, hunting is cool, and handguns are gangland chic. The hundreds of thousands of guns destroyed in buybacks since Port Arthur have been more than replaced by new ones. But guns are highly political and the national system for monitoring gun ownership is a mess. Listen to the report. (Repeat)


Safe hunting (NCIS) reports into hunting fatalities | Game Council of NSW | Nov 2012 - Information about deaths reported to an Australian Coroner between 1st July 2000 and 31st October 2012 which involved a sporting related activity, and are closed on the NCIS. A more in depth search and analysis of deaths relating to persons who were engaged in 'hunting' activities was also undertaken. [PDF 365Kb]

Conservation Through Hunting: an Environmental Paradigm Change in NSW | Game Council of NSW - A report on wildlife management in NSW and Australia by Dr Johannes Bauer and Dr Tony English. [PDF 1.8Mb]


FACT SHEET: Pest control and shooting in Victoria's national parks | VIC National Parks - Pest animals such as deer, pigs, rabbits and goats do enormous damage to the state's natural areas: they create wallows in wetlands, damage waterways, chomp threatened plants and trample valuable habitat. They are increasing in numbers and spreading far and wide.

Sporting Shooters' Association of Australia fact sheet | SSAA | 12 Feb 13 - Fact sheet with useful information regarding firearms, firearm ownership and the shooting sports in Australia. [PDF 308Kb]

University of Queensland Australian Hunter Survey | 2012 - Summary of University of Queensland Hunter Survey Responses to 20 July 2012. [PDF 245kB]

Loving Nature, Killing Nature, and the Crises of Caring | Mar 2011 - An anthropological investigation of conflicts affecting feral pig management in Queensland, by Dr Carla Meurk. [PDF 4Mb]

How has gun ownership changed in Australia since 1996? | SSAA - The SSAA on Australian firearms ownership and recreational shooting and hunting issues.

Pest Control by licensed individuals on National Parks | Game Council NSW - The NSW Government announced on 30 May 2012 a new program of pest control by individuals licensed under the Game and Feral Animal Control Act. Read more.

Australia: Gun Facts, Figures and the Law | - Federal firearm regulation is limited: each state has its own gun law. Read more.


The Australian Deer Association - A national hunting and deer management organisation.

Game Council NSW -

Gun Control Australia - - Provides evidence-based, country-by-country intelligence from a broad range of official and academic sources.

CAMPAIGN: No Hunting in National Parks - Information about the campaign is available online.

The Sporting Shooters' Association of Australia - The SSAA is the premier shooting body representing licensed firearm owners in Australia.

Shooters and Fishers Party | Twitter: SFPAustralia - The voice of hunters, shooters, fishers, rural and regional Australia and independent thinking Australians everywhere.

Tags: death, federal-state-issues, political-parties, animals, animal-welfare, laws, national-parks, activism-and-lobbying, australia, nsw, vic

First posted June 10, 2013 14:07:00