{"id":332317,"date":"2025-12-07T07:37:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T07:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/332317\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T07:37:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T07:37:10","slug":"farmers-campaign-against-feral-deer-exposes-the-traps-of-victorias-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/332317\/","title":{"rendered":"Farmers\u2019 campaign against feral deer exposes the traps of Victoria\u2019s system"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feedback to the state\u2019s deer strategy showed Victorians wanted \u201cmore emphasis on managing these impacts and less on deer as a hunting resource<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Despite this, Premier Jacinta Allan and Environment Minister Steve Dimopoulos recently announced in an upbeat Instagram post<\/a> deer hunting would be allowed in national parks in Victoria, \u201cunlocking 130,000 hectares, and driving more jobs and visitors into our regional communities\u201d, Allan said.<\/p>\n

\"David<\/p>\n

David and Marie Trigg (pictured in their kitchen) are frustrated by the government\u2019s handling of the feral deer problem.Credit: Jason South<\/p>\n

A Victorian government spokesman said the state had allocated $27 million on deer management over the past four years, but did not respond when asked how much of this was for culls.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re taking action to safely control Victoria\u2019s feral deer population and reduce the significant negative impacts they have on our wildlife and biodiversity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeer hunters have an important role to play in curbing the devastating impact of wild deer on our environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Private landholders can shoot deer without a permit on their own land, he said. But as Marie and David Trigg can attest, it is a different story for anyone wanting to trap deer.<\/p>\n

Back in Gippsland, the Triggs have spent years locking horns with the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Change (DEECA) and the Office of the Conservation Regulator (OCR), fighting to have permanent traps installed on their land to catch deer.<\/p>\n

Their farm is home to about 100 breeding Angus cattle, and Marie fears the sounds of rifles being fired could spook her cattle and their calves. She also doesn\u2019t want strangers on her property while she has prize-winning Angus breeding and calving.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey\u2019re tiny calves, the Angus \u2013 I cannot have shooters on the property. I don\u2019t want shooters,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But letting deer roam is similarly unthinkable. Deer \u2013 as cloven-toed animals \u2013 could bring in foot and mouth disease, to which cattle are susceptible. They have also tracked hemlock seeds onto the couple\u2019s farm \u2013 another invasive pest, which is deadly to cattle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see myself as a very proactive farmer,\u201d Marie said. \u201cI can see deer and keep being told they double every year. And from my 10 or 15 that I could see, I can think, my god, I\u2019m going to have 20 or 30.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple and their friend, Skyline Management Systems executive director Emanuel Vlamis, have spent three years in a bureaucratic tussle with the Environment Department over the right to install large deer traps on the Triggs\u2019 farm.<\/p>\n

Vlamis and his colleague Peter Martin designed a large trap on the farm that included smart cameras and a satellite connection, and an automated trapping door system. Within the trap were hay, feed and water stations. Deer were protected from the elements inside the device.<\/p>\n

But securing a permit to operate the trap became a three-year battle. First they applied for a permit to trap the deer and release them elsewhere, which was denied. Then they applied for a permit to trap the deer and humanely destroy them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to jump through a heap of hoops,\u201d Vlamis says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to give them the design of the trap, all the configurations, all the surveillance that was used. From start to finish, getting the permit, took 18 months.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The permit, however, allowed the couple to trap only 12 deer over a fixed time period. After the permit expired in August, 15 deer wandered into the trap, which is now open. They were forced to let them go.<\/p>\n

The Triggs and Vlamis believe \u2013 although the government would not confirm for \u201cprivacy reasons\u201d \u2013 that theirs is the only trap to win approval to operate in Victoria.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe frustrating thing is that I can\u2019t believe that they can\u2019t look ahead,\u201d Marie said. \u201cIf they\u2019re multiplying so rapidly, why can\u2019t we do more about it?\u201d<\/p>\n

While Vlamis and Martin have a commercial interest in the control of deer, their broader concern is for the rampant damage feral deer cause to agricultural land and the natural environment<\/p>\n

When this masthead visited the Triggs\u2019 farm, the signs of deer were clear, including fallow deer hair caught on the underside of fences, showing where they had squeezed underneath.<\/p>\n

The Triggs and Vlamis have since applied for another permit to trap deer, which was supposed to have been decided last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in a stalemate because we\u2019ve applied for six other permits, and they\u2019ve all come back rejected, and they\u2019re in the peri-urban area too,\u201d Vlamis said. \u201cYou can\u2019t just be waiting for six months for a permit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The government spokesman said trapping deer was permitted under specific conditions, but landowners must use deer traps in a way that minimises prolonged stress and injury to deer and native animals.<\/p>\n

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