Victoria has 12 Ramsar sites, the latest to be gazetted as a Wetland of International Significance (August 2018) was the Glenelg Estuary and Discovery Bay, Glenelg Ramsar.

The Convention on Wetlands is the intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.

“Victoria has some of the best game hunting opportunities in Australia. There are generous open seasons and bag limits for game deer, duck and quail and about 4 million hectares of public land available for hunting”. Victorian Government 2024

The following comments regarding individual Ramsar sites across Victoria follow research by members of Regional Victorians Opposed to Duck Shooting. These findings generally concur with our own understanding of the situation in Victoria.

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Victoria’s Ramsar sites, signage and shooting:

• Barmah Forest

No Ramsar signage at this site.
Recreational hunting occurs here, in the area north of Barmah township.

• Corner Inlet

No Ramsar signage at this site.
Recreational hunting occurs at this Ramsar site.

• Edithvale-Seaford Wetlands

No Ramsar signage at this site.

Government signage at Edithvale Seaford wetlands with mention of Ramsar in small text on information sign.

• Gippsland Lakes

Where signs exist they say State Game Reserve.

“Hunting occurs pretty much everywhere at Gippsland Lakes except part of Lake Colman, and part of the Gippsland Lakes Coastal Park. There are numerous State Game Reserves (recreational hunting areas in which non-hunters are often prohibited) at this Ramsar site. Heart Morass and MacLeod Morass were found to have high lead levels (from shot) in recent years”.

• Gunbower Forest

No Ramsar signage.
Hunting permitted in some areas.

• Hattah-Kulkyne Lakes

No Ramsar signage.
The Ramsar site is located in the Hattah-Kulkyne National Park. No hunting is permitted.

• Kerang Wetlands

The only Kerang RAMSAR wetland not open to recreational native bird hunters is the small area just west of Kerang.

Ten of the Kerang RAMSAR wetlands are now signed State Game Reserves, restricting access for non-hunters.

• Lake Albacutya

No Ramsar signage.

Despite Lake Albacutya’s national park status, recreational hunting of native ducks is permitted across the entire area.

• Port Phillip Bay (Western Shoreline) and Bellarine Peninsula

No Ramsar signage, State Game Reserve signs are shot up as is commonplace.

Four State Game Reserve sites on the Ramsar site where shooting takes place.

• Western District Lakes

No Ramsar signage.

The entire area is open to recreational native bird shooters. Lake Murdeduke is a State Game Reserve and two other lakes (Colongulac and Gnarpurt) are designated hunting areas which impose the same restrictions on non-hunters as a State Game Reserve.

• Western Port

According to the hunting maps, no recreational hunting should be occurring here. However the maps are known to be incorrect and misleading.

• Glenelg Estuary and Discovery Bay

Unsure about status of signage.

Hunting map of Glenelg / Discovery Bay area indicates where hunting is permitted.

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What we have witnessed on at least some Ramsar sites in Victoria is a very long way from being a wise use of resources and has nothing to do with wetland conservation. The scale of capture of public lands away from safe and wise public use is staggering.

“The non-hunting public will be excluded from within 25m of the water’s edge in these reserves and 41 other wetlands every day of the 3 month duck hunting season, from 2 hours before sunset until 10.00 am the next day. It will also be an offence for an (unauthorised) member of the public (which means most of us) to come within 10m of a licenced hunter, with the threat of prosecution and a fine”. Victorian National Parks Association 2019

Duck shooting in Victoria is widespread in the geographical sense, the Victorian Government describes its scale, there are 199 State Game Reserves comprising of over 75,000 hectares of public land. If all the wetlands in the State Game Reserve system were at full level, it would equate to 47,786 hectares of surface water and approximately 40,000 hectares of public waters. There are 18 Ramsar listed (components) wetlands of international importance in the current State Game Reserve system. These sites contain representative, rare or unique wetlands, or wetlands that are important for conserving biological diversity.

"Ten of the Kerang RAMSAR wetlands are now signed State Game Reserves, restricting access for non-hunters. The area was made a State Game Reserve (hunting area, which prohibits non-hunters from entering at certain times for up to a quarter of the year), with no community consultation, in 2016 – adding a further 10 State Game Reserves to the list of public waterways which non-hunters are restricted from accessing". Regional Victorians Opposed to Duck Shooting

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Beyond the state’s Game Reserves and in total, based on land classification, approximately 3.5 million hectares of public land is available for duck shooting in Victoria. According to the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, this includes about 285,000 hectares of primary hunting locations near waterways, of which as described above, 75,000 hectares are state game reserves.

Stubble Quail, a native quail species, is shot in large numbers in 16 of these State Game Reserves as well as numerous other locations.

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Ramsar sites and Game Reserves converge

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“Shooting ducks for recreation does not contribute to wetland conservation nor is it apparently a ‘wise use’ of these wetlands that support internationally significant numbers of waterfowl. Banning duck hunting at Ramsar listed wetlands would be a major step in their conservation and would also increase their accessibility to non-hunters, the vast majority of Victorians who value and use these wetlands for other reasons”. Victorian National Parks Association 2019

In 2019 the Victorian National Parks Association reported that there were 186 Game Reserves in Victoria, now there are 199, so the number is growing. More recent additions appear to include:

• Corop
• Duck Lake
• Harts Swamp
• Heywood Lake
• Lake Mannaor
• Lake Meran
• Lake Murphy
• Plumptons

Hunting appears not to occur on Hattah Lakes and the ‘urban’ Ramsar sites of Edithvale-Seaford and Westernport Bay, although duck shooting does occur at the Lake Connewarre State Game Reserve (Ramsar gazetted 1983) which is linked to the sea by the Barwon River.

In contrast, hunting occurs and is heavily promoted by the Victorian Government on all the other Ramsar sites in Victoria with the Kerang Wetlands Ramsar site is being spruiked by the government as the most popular duck hunting locality in Victoria.

And just as the Nature Knowledge Channel predicted last year:

“The Victorian Minister for the Environment, Steve Dimopoulos, has also signed off on the removal of one of Australia's most unique native waterbirds, the Hardhead (Aythya australis), from the threatened species list, just three years after it was put on it”. Regional Victorians Opposed to Duck Shooting

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Signs matter

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We have raised the issue of poor signage at Ramsar sites in Victoria with senior politicians in the Victorian Government for many years. An audit of Victoria’s State Game Reserves seems to describe a similar problem.

“Game Reserve signage was found to be ambiguous and inconsistent across the state, with 42% (84) reserves not having any signage, 31% (62) reserves signed incorrectly as Wildlife Reserve, 9% (17) signed with the name of the reserve only (excluding any classification), four signed as Natural Features Reserve and one reserve signed incorrectly as a Nature Conservation Reserve. Of the 199 SGRs, only 16% (31) are signed correctly as State Game Reserves”. An audit of Victoria’s State Game Reserves 2016

It is very telling that it appears that the once Wildlife Reserves across the state are being turned into hunting grounds. Dangerous for Australian wildlife and dangerous for the general public who visit these places.

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