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Speaker 1: Well, we know that hunting season opens tomorrow on local

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Speaker 1: reserves with daily bag limits of seven magpie geese and

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Speaker 1: ten for the waterfowl. Hunting is indeed permitted on Lambell's

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Speaker 1: Lagoon Conservation Reserve as well as Howard Springs Hunting Reserve

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Speaker 1: up until the twenty second of December and the eighth

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Speaker 1: of January at Shoal Bay Coastal Reserve and Harrison Dam

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Speaker 1: Conservation Reserve. Now joining me on the line to tell

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Speaker 1: us a little bit more is Nty Field and Game

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Speaker 1: Association's Bart Irwin.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Bart's, good morning Coatie.

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Speaker 1: Good to have you on the show. But we know

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Speaker 1: that the hunting on private land opened it in August.

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Speaker 1: How is the season looking though, kicking off tomorrow, how's

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Speaker 1: it looking so far?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's looking good at the move from out at

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Speaker 3: van Kakadu and down the Daily and the Mary River systems.

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Speaker 3: And yes, they're in the Howard swamped.

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Speaker 2: They're into Shoal Bay.

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Speaker 3: Not too sure about Lambele's and Harrison yet, but both

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Speaker 3: have with water so they'll be as they'll be as

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Speaker 3: good as any as well.

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Speaker 2: And yeah, they're at.

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Speaker 3: Home there on on Sunday evening all of a sudden,

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Speaker 3: you know, I had five hundred flying over my house

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Speaker 3: and roosting in the trees behind me, just to torment

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Speaker 3: me throughout the throughout the night.

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Speaker 1: Oh goodness mate, just like right on time, hey bush.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's it really is a well placed time

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Speaker 3: for a goose hunting season to commence. It's when the

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Speaker 3: birds come to the last remaining a lot of the

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Speaker 3: last remaining swamps in around Darwin. They spend most of

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Speaker 3: their year out in out in what I call the

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Speaker 3: goose factories of the mary Kakadoo and Daily river systems,

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Speaker 3: and then as they start to dry they come here

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Speaker 3: and sensibly the authorities choose to that's when they chooday

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Speaker 3: have the goose season.

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Speaker 2: So there's birds on every reps. So obviously get a

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Speaker 2: nice food.

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Speaker 1: Of Yeah, so obviously it all kicks off tomorrow. What

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Speaker 1: do people need to be aware of.

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Speaker 3: They need to have their shooter's license. They need to

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Speaker 3: have their goose or their water empty waterfowl hunting fermit.

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Speaker 3: They need to have non toxic shot so no lead,

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Speaker 3: no lead at all. They really need to pick up

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Speaker 3: all all all their spent cartridges and all any any

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Speaker 3: packaging that they take in.

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Speaker 2: I'm aware that the.

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Speaker 3: Rangers will be checking hunters for spent shells.

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Speaker 2: If they've got geese.

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Speaker 3: In the hand and they haven't got the spent shells

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Speaker 3: that they shot them with, there will be there will

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Speaker 3: be fines and posts. So we encourage everyone to leave

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Speaker 3: nothing but footsteps and a couple of feathers drifting down.

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Speaker 2: When they go out hunting. Enjoy it, but leave it

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Speaker 2: how you found it.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, they need to disperse they when they finished cleaning

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Speaker 3: the birds, they need to disperse the cases. Don't pile

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Speaker 3: them up, disperse them at least five meters apart, so

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Speaker 3: that the scavengers, like the hawks and now the animals

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Speaker 3: can go and clean up all the remains and leave it.

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Speaker 2: Leave it to be a really good book in place.

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Speaker 2: So there's lots to do.

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Speaker 3: I'm here at cooling your guns and am of them.

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Speaker 2: I just called in.

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Speaker 3: You caught me here, and man, have they got.

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Speaker 2: Forty five shotgun different shotguns on the wreck and they're

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Speaker 2: good to go, thirty different brands of ammunition and duck

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Speaker 2: and gooselads.

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Speaker 1: So they are they're ready for the for the for

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Speaker 1: the season. By the sounds of that.

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Speaker 3: Oh yeah, Well, it's a magnificent economic driver for the territory.

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Speaker 3: Waterfowl hunting brings in between twelve and twenty five million,

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Speaker 3: as you know, as what parts from all.

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Speaker 2: I say, so, Yeah, it's a it's a big part

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Speaker 2: of the economy.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, just the gunshops of benefit out of that.

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Speaker 2: It's everything from the from.

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Speaker 3: The takeaway store that that's open at five am in

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Speaker 3: the morning to the fellow who's selling your quad bike

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Speaker 3: or fixing your fixing your America.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, particularly you know, you do actually have people

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Speaker 1: that come from other states and territories to to you know,

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Speaker 1: to hunt in the Northern Territory. So it is a driver.

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Speaker 1: But I want to ask you the bag limits. You

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Speaker 1: and I have spoken about these nearly every year, and

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Speaker 1: every year I sort of ask you if they're adequate,

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Speaker 1: how are they for this year?

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Speaker 2: They're exactly what they should be. Seven geese and ten ducks.

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Speaker 2: That's where we want to be. That's where it should stay.

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Speaker 3: This they've got these thresholds now of one million, one

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Speaker 3: point two million, and one point five million, I.

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Speaker 2: Think, and.

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Speaker 3: From what I've seen, the counting and population estimate is.

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Speaker 2: Not very accurate. Last well, in this year's count.

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Speaker 3: It's come down from what was potentially a two point

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Speaker 3: two million third estimate after the breeding of last year

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Speaker 3: to one point two million.

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Speaker 2: Now we haven't lost a million geese yet. It's been purposing.

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Speaker 3: There's been peaks and troughs over the past few years.

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Speaker 2: I believe this year they lost a million geese. Last year.

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Speaker 3: I reckon they found six hundred thousand extraverts then would

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Speaker 3: have been there from gauging by the count previous year.

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Speaker 3: So it can't be accurate and it's not reliable in it,

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Speaker 3: and it's really pointless. Like we've had the we've had

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Speaker 3: the data and monitoring for forty years and guess what,

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Speaker 3: We've still got well over between a million and two

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Speaker 3: million goose out there, probably more than that. And the

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Speaker 3: hunting is inconsequential. We're just going to get a meal

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Speaker 3: and with three thousand goose hunters, it's never going to

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Speaker 3: have any impact on the population. It probably focuses more

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Speaker 3: attention on the wetlands and the habitat that that is

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Speaker 3: the real driver have a healthy wetland ecology.

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Speaker 1: But do you reckon lock have you found it? Over

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Speaker 1: the last couple of years though? Is the government more

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Speaker 1: prepared to kind of sit down with you and sit

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Speaker 1: down with hunters and hear what you guys want as well.

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Speaker 3: This year they did have a meeting, but it was

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Speaker 3: well after everything had been decided. They were just telling

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Speaker 3: us what was going to happen. That was held last week.

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Speaker 3: Normally we had these meetings in May to discuss what's

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Speaker 3: what's occurred on the on the aerial bird count, uh Minister.

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Speaker 3: In the past few years we've had Minister mister Evil Lawler.

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Speaker 2: She there is no compromise at all with her.

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Speaker 3: It was always confrontational and she can be quite bullying

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Speaker 3: in meetings with you. She's been banging the table and

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Speaker 3: trying of me. She's also oh yeah, it's terrible. I

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Speaker 3: had other other people in there and they said, God,

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Speaker 3: is this here?

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Speaker 2: You get treated every time?

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Speaker 3: I said, oh, well with Minister Lawa, that's it's been

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Speaker 3: like that.

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Speaker 1: So goodness may so, So where are you at now?

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Speaker 1: Like who is the who's the minister now? And are

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Speaker 1: you finding it's any like are you finding it any

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Speaker 1: more positives?

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Speaker 3: Well, yeah, Minister Moss's the environment mister. She's the one

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Speaker 3: who declares the season. Minister Manison as the Minister.

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Speaker 2: For Parks and Wildlife.

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Speaker 3: I've had good meetings with Minister Madison's advice. So I

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Speaker 3: haven't yet met Minister Madison since she took over Parks

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Speaker 3: of Wildlife, but very fruitful discussions with her advisor. Minister

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Speaker 3: Moss haven't had anything any meetings with her since twenty

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Speaker 3: seventeen when daily she reduced the season to about eight

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Speaker 3: weeks in the bag, when it to about three birds.

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Speaker 3: We would like to meet again because there's lots of good,

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Speaker 3: positive things that can come out of face to face

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Speaker 3: meetings if everyone respects the other, yeah, and goes into

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Speaker 3: it with an open mind.

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Speaker 1: Well and better for everybody, better for the territory, I

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Speaker 1: would think, well, exactly, Yeah, it's.

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Speaker 3: A want to do better about the habitat. If mt

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Speaker 3: Field Game had a slogan, it'd be we're here for

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Speaker 3: geets and that's that's all we want is more geese

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Speaker 3: in the in the swamps. But if the swamps are healthy,

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Speaker 3: they'll support everything from from geese to crimson crimson finches.

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Speaker 3: So it's about keeping the weeds out, making sure the

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Speaker 3: water levels aren't aren't polluted by either salt water intrusion

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Speaker 3: or by or by other pollutants, and so forth. But

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Speaker 3: if we're not, when we get to the table people

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Speaker 3: yelling and screaming at us and banging the.

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Speaker 2: Table and calling its names, you start to lose the

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Speaker 2: faith and the ability to want to help.

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Speaker 1: But I mean, I guess it's a pretty big call,

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Speaker 1: and I'm sure that the Minister's office will be saying

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Speaker 1: that is not the case. Obviously I've not been in

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Speaker 1: that meeting, so I don't know, but you know it's

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Speaker 1: a pretty big call.

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Speaker 3: Well, well, I had the president of Feeling Game with

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Speaker 3: me was there.

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Speaker 2: The Minister's advisor was there, and.

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Speaker 3: Doctor Aleric Fisher were there, So feel free to give

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Speaker 3: them all a ring and don't tell you what happened.

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Speaker 1: Bart Irwin, I always appreciate your time. Sounds like it's

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Speaker 1: going to be a back on to the positive. Sounds

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Speaker 1: like it's going to be a cracking season for you.

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Speaker 2: Mate.

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Speaker 1: Let us know how it is all tracking.

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Speaker 2: Thanks very much, Katie, appreciate the chance to talk.

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Speaker 1: Thank you, We appreciate your time. That's bart Erwin there

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Speaker 1: from int Field and Gay