All these Australian bird species are protected bird species under Australian law and very large numbers are killed each year for recreation. Shooters must be 12 years or older.

The first weekend of Victoria’s Duck shooting season and more violence. This description of events, a repeat performance of 2024, from Victorian MP, Georgie Purcell:

“We knew shooters would be emboldened, and authorities were too. The coordinated targeting of rescuers was the worst I’ve seen it in my 13 years of duck rescue, as they turned their backs on wounded and struggling illegally shot birds to instead penalise those only trying to help them.

A number of live birds came through the vet tent — we saw broken beaks, legs, wings and hips. All of them would’ve suffered for days if not weeks if we weren’t there. One poor bird was even swimming in circles because of their injury, her foot twisted completely backwards”.

As we see the status of international order demolished before us, and that some countries come to understand that they can get away with anything, a parallel has emerged in Australia in relation to the treatment of its biodiversity. What we have seen in the last three years in particular, including in South Australia and Victoria (the latter is now so bad that it is hard to contemplate how they get away with it, including the abuse of people) is staggering.

Despite a series of vast scale climate events, droughts, floods, extreme heat, fires and changes in disease patterns and their impact on Australia’s birdlife, the killing contains unabated. Victoria heads the list when it comes to shooting Australian and protected bird species.

The estimated numbers here do not include recreational shooting of ducks in New South Wales on rice fields, that adds another 25,000-35,000 birds per annum. In Victoria (and other states) birds are also killed via a permit system, numerous bird species are targeted in this way from Emus to Swallows.

If it flies it dies.

‍

‍

Victoria

‍

“We’re also giving hunters certainty about future seasons with the dates for the next three years set out in the Wildlife (Game) Regulations”. Steve Dimopoulos, Victorian Government Environment Minister

Ducks

The Victorian Government has announced the 2025 duck season will open at 8:00am on Wednesday, 19 March 2025 and close 30 minutes after sunset on Sunday, 9 June 2025.

The hunting start time is 8:00am until 30 minutes after sunset for the first five days, then from 30 minutes before sunrise until 30 minutes after sunset for the remainder of the season.

The daily bag limit is nine ducks per day per shooter.

• 7 duck species can be hunted. These are the Pacific Black Duck, Mountain Duck, Pink-eared Duck, Wood Duck, Hardhead, Chestnut Teal and Grey Teal.
• 1 protected species not permitted for duck hunting in 2025 is the Blue-winged Shoveler.

Number killed in 2024: 391,900.

‍

Stubble Quail

Shooting commences on the first Saturday of April and closes on the last day of June, each year. Hunting is permitted from 30 minutes before sunrise until 30 minutes after sunset throughout the season.

Bag limit: Maximum 20 birds per day per shooter.

Number killed in 2024: 457,399.

‍

‍

South Australia

‍

Ducks

Duck open season begins at sunrise on Saturday 22 March 2025 and ends at sunset on Sunday 29 June 2025.

• 5 game duck species may be hunted. These are the Grey Teal, Chestnut Teal, Pacific Black Duck, Mountain Duck and Wood Duck.
• The 3 protected species not permitted for duck hunting in 2025 are the Pink-eared Duck, Hardhead and Blue-winged Shoveler.

Bag limit: Maximum 6 birds per day except the Mountain Duck at 2 birds per day.

Number killed in 2024: An estimated 25,800 ducks were taken during the 2024 open season over approximately 4,500 hunter days.

NOTE: In 2024, 1,405 duck and 240 quail hunters held permits in South Australia. Approximately one third of South Australian duck permits are typically held by interstate hunters. For context, Victoria generally has over 20,000 duck hunters and 25,000 quail hunters holding permits.

‍

Stubble Quail only in 2025

Quail open season begins at sunrise on Saturday 26 April 2025 and ends at sunset on Sunday 27 July 2025.

Bag limit: 15 Stubble Quail per day.

Number killed in 2024: 120,000.

‍

Tasmania

‍

Ducks

The 2025 season will be from Saturday 8 March to 9 June 2025 with shooting permitted from one hour prior to sunrise until one hour after sunset.

• 5 duck species can be hunted. These are Pacific Black duck, Grey Teal, Chestnut Teal, Mountain Duck and Wood Duck.

Bag limit: 10 ducks per day.

Number killed in 2024: 45,000-50,000 estimate.

‍

Brown Quail only 2025

The 2025 season will be from Saturday 17 May to 29 June 2025. No times stated but daylight hours likely.

Bag Limit: 20 birds per day per shooter.

• 2 species not to be shot. These are the Stubble Quail and Painted Quail.

Number killed in 2024: 45,000.

‍

Mutton Birds (Short-tailed Shearwater)

The 2025 season commences 29 March to 13 April.

Bag limit is 25 birds per recreational hunter per colony.

Number killed unknown.

NOTE: Mutton Birds are long distance commuters, migrating annually from Australia to Japan, then via Siberia to the north of Alaska.

‍

Northern Territory

In the NT the ‘goose and waterfowl hunting season’ typically commences on private land in mid-August, and on public land towards the end of 25 September through to early January.

Bird species shot are:

• Magpie Goose
• Pacific Black Duck
• Grey Teal
• Hardhead
• Wood Duck
• Wandering Whistling Duck
• Plumed Whistling Duck
• Pink-eared Duck

Bar limits:

Magpie Goose: 7 birds per day per hunter; and

Duck species: 10 birds per day per hunter.

Number killed annually: 230,000 Estimate based on NT Government data.

‍

‍

Cooking the books; A note on Victoria and numbers

Victoria has a problem with numbers and a problem with transparency as recent analysis of the state’s FOI system indicates. When it comes to wildlife and numbers, there are many questions regarding the government’s claims, few, if any, are ever answered clearly. When it comes to Ducks and Quail, Regional Victorians Opposed to Duck Shooting have this to say:

• Data inputs are flaky, leading to flawed guesstimates;
• The abundance estimate is based on Victorian counts only;
• There is unreliable data for “less common” game ducks;
• There is a gross lack of population data for quail;
• Wound rates for ducks are underestimated and are not even known for quail;
• Harvest estimates are reliant on shooters’ honesty; and
• There are at least 3 different sub-models in this new AHM model, each with its own set of assumptions and uncertainties which compound when combined. One example is N-mixture modelling. This is so unreliable even NSW DPI are moving away from it.

‍

What the science permits

The standard game applies here. Set up a new ‘scientific’ method and model that justifies the unjustifiable. Here it all is in plain sight.

GMA - RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE 2025 DUCK SEASON ARRANGEMENTS Published 11 March 2025 – Season starts 19 March.

• In response to the Parliamentary inquiry into native bird hunting arrangements in Victoria, Government announced that adaptive harvest management (AHM) would be implemented in 2025 to assist in determining the annual duck season arrangements.
• In the initial stages of implementing AHM, Victorian game duck abundance is determined, a proportional harvest level of 10 per cent is applied and a bag limit to achieve this is identified.
• Victorian game duck abundance was estimated at approximately four million birds, and the seasonal harvest quota was 400,500 (which excluded Blue-winged Shoveler as it cannot be hunted). The modelled daily bag limit that achieved the 10 per cent quota is nine ducks per day.
• The GMA Board reviewed the monitoring and modelling program to collect data and provide the modelled daily bag limit recommendation and considered it was robust, acknowledging the program is in its infancy and will improve in precision as seasons pass. It also considered other comparator indicators as part of its due diligence.
• After thoroughly considering all available information to it, the GMA Board does not consider there is substantive evidence that contra-indicates the identified daily bag limit to achieve the 10 per cent proportional harvest level. Therefore, the GMA Board recommends that a daily bag limit of nine birds is adopted for the 2025 duck season.
• The AHM monitoring and modelling program has been developed by independent expert scientists and the GMA believes it is fit for purpose following interrogation and analysis of the outputs and way in which it delivers the recommended bag limit.
• The GMA is available to brief you on this recommendation in person should you wish.

Regional Victorians Opposed to Duck Shooting make the following points.

• Wounding (non-kill) rates are factored in at 23 per cent which is too low. Documents obtained through Freedom of Information (FOI) show GMA admits it can be up to 60 per cent or higher.
• Population estimates are based on counts of ducks in Victoria only ignoring that  birds fly across borders.
• Bag limits can't be enforced given that most shooting sites are not monitored.
• Hardhead and Pink-eared Ducks should be protected given their particularly low numbers, South Australia is protecting them in 2025

In relation to the GMA recommendations above, Regional Victorians Opposed to Duck Shooting make the following observations.

• In its November count, the  GMA found 44 per cent less waterways and 38 per cent less ducks than in the previous year.
• Some duck species, including those most vulnerable are concentrated in a small number of wetlands in Victoria, ‘sitting ducks’ for shooters.
• Most ‘game’ duck species are in long term decline.
• In the few other states that still permit duck shooting there are restrictions in place to protect the alarmingly low duck numbers, certain species are off the list in South Australia such as the Hardhead and Pink-eared Duck and the Mountain Duck is restricted to two ducks per day per shooter.
• In Victoria. the government’s ‘new science’ sees a duck as a duck, nine of which, even the most struggling of species can be bagged each day per shooter, up from six last year.
• 2025 will be an extra-long shooting season that will provide 50 per cent more shooting days in 2025 then in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
• An increased kill quota will have a significant adverse impacts on regional communities with intrusive gunfire persisting for longer each day.
• Victoria is suffering a significant drought, hence the Victorian Government’s drought relief package of $13 million to support western Victorian families.
• Victoria has just sweltered through the hottest driest January for 100 years and forecast for the state show the trend will continue.

‍