National Parks

Could feral goats be smarter than Greens politicians? Having hunted for many years, I can tell you that feral goats know exactly which fence line to scramble under to escape pursuing hunters.

It’s always the one bordering a national park; exactly where the hunters can’t follow. However it seems the Greens haven’t quite worked that one out yet.

The deal NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell struck with the NSW Shooters and Fishers party will finally allow authorised hunters to pursue feral animals across fence lines, into national parks where they hide, and remove them from what is supposed to be a haven for native species.

Continue reading "The Greens missed their chance to embrace the Bush" »

For a bloke who has a grizzly story too, I’m paying close attention to the case in which two Australians, Andrew Brodie and Owen Hereford, are suing the Canadian Government for $75,000 each over a 1995 grizzly attack.

They were camping at Lake Louise when they were attacked in their tent by a bear. The basis of their lawsuit, currently before the courts and expected to last three weeks, is that authorities were negligent in ensuring the safety of campers.

There is no question that Brodie, now 36, and Hereford, 37, would have had no chance to defend themselves, given that the incident took place at about 3.30 in the morning. If they were asleep, the grizzly attack would have given them no time to grab a can of bear spray, a capsicum-based aerosol spray that is part and parcel of venturing into much of Canada.

Continue reading "That’s not a grizzly story, this is a grizzly story" »

I went shooting recently. A couple of old friends and I spent a few days on a farm in northern NSW which can only be described as a target-rich environment.

I’ve never seen so many rabbits in one place ... between us we nailed about 300 of them and left thousands more chewing up the paddocks.

So numerous were they that at night you could have walked through the pastures with a cricket bat and scored a century.

Continue reading "Wowser-watch: shooters are making environment’s day" »