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Speaker 1: Now the Harrison Dam Reserve is set to be expanded,

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Speaker 1: creating more opportunities for recreational hunters. So essentially what the

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Speaker 1: government's announced is that infrastructure upgrades are going to be

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Speaker 1: carried out on the southern section of the reserve, which

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Speaker 1: currently hasn't got vehicle access, is my understanding, and that

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Speaker 1: is due to water logged swamps, lagoons and floodplaying channels.

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Speaker 1: Now joining us on the line to tell us a

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Speaker 1: little bit more about his understanding of what's going to happen.

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Speaker 1: He's into Field and Game Associations, Bart Irwin, Good morning.

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Speaker 2: To you, Bart, Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: But this sounds like it is a win for hunters

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Speaker 1: around the Northern Territory. Whereabouts is the Harrison Dam Reserve

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Speaker 1: just to.

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Speaker 2: Start off, the Harrison Dan Reserves out of Antique Parade,

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Speaker 2: the middle point, and is I believe, probably one of

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Speaker 2: the largest reserves, certainly the largest water body that we

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Speaker 2: have to hunt over for most of the season and

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Speaker 2: holds water better than any of the other areas, especially

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Speaker 2: in the early part of the season.

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Speaker 1: Yeah right, And is it pretty popular, But.

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Speaker 2: It is probably the most popular, it's the easiest to

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Speaker 2: get to, It's almost two will drive access to the

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Speaker 2: to the damn all after that. Yes, you said the

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Speaker 2: neutral will drive to get around it. As specialist.

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Speaker 1: There's been any rain and mostly just geese hunting or

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Speaker 1: what do people hunt out there?

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Speaker 2: Geese ducks And there is limited feral pig hunting with

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Speaker 2: shotguns and dogs, I believe, but not with rifles because

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Speaker 2: of the Adelaide River cruise cruise boats move around that area.

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Speaker 1: Yep, fair enough so, but that look that it sounds

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Speaker 1: like this is going to be a positive move if

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Speaker 1: you are somebody who likes to hit out and about

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Speaker 1: and hunt. From your understanding, what is the expansion going

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Speaker 1: to mean?

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Speaker 2: Well, to say this, We've been going on about new

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Speaker 2: swamps for twenty four years and this is the first

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Speaker 2: time that is going to be achieved. And I'm just

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Speaker 2: staggered at the speed and alacrity of the nearlymitted Sealpeak

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Speaker 2: government to get on the go with this. We were

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Speaker 2: meeting with them out there, with Jared Maale and Andrew mckuye,

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Speaker 2: all the CEOs of Parks of Wildlife and Department of

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Speaker 2: bag and so forth, and two weeks later construction commences.

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Speaker 2: I've been going on for eight years with Eva Lawler,

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Speaker 2: and she kept saying, oh, no, I can't find anything,

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Speaker 2: can't do anything, No, no, no, even after promising he's

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Speaker 2: in the twenty twenty election campaign. So it is just unbelievable.

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Speaker 2: And what it will do. It will open up I

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Speaker 2: was trying to the calculations before, but Parks and Wildlife

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Speaker 2: told me it will open up about twenty percent more shoreline.

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Speaker 2: If you consider that, I think Harrison Dan would be

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Speaker 2: between fifteen hundred and two thousand acres surface area, So

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Speaker 2: this is adding another three to three to four hundred

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Speaker 2: acres and the shoeline that that allows hunters to go

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Speaker 2: to and get birds. And they're also it's going to

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Speaker 2: give them the opportunity to spray more weeds out there,

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Speaker 2: which will open up more water. And that's what the

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Speaker 2: that's what the water fowl, the jabaru, the ibis all

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Speaker 2: they need to be able to get to the water

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Speaker 2: and just like hunters do. And this is just monumental

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Speaker 2: compared to what we've endured for the past eight years.

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Speaker 1: So but by the sounds of it, I mean from

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Speaker 1: what you are saying, you feel like this is a

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Speaker 1: real game.

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Speaker 2: Oh for this p to prioritize this, so early in

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Speaker 2: their term, after they did make commitments to us in

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Speaker 2: the hunting policy. The only party in Australia I think

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Speaker 2: to have a hunting policy. They made commitments to us

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Speaker 2: and for them to be commencing work six weeks after

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Speaker 2: being elected shows that they do have a real care

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Speaker 2: for hunters, for the environment and the ongoing use and

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Speaker 2: tourism that hunting provides for the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: In terms of that tourism, I mean like, is this

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Speaker 1: going to make a difference do you think that in

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Speaker 1: seeing people potentially travel to the Northern Territory to hunt.

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Speaker 2: Well, yes, it certainly will. Because the reason we've been

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Speaker 2: going on about new hunting reserves for twenty four years

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Speaker 2: is because of the crowding that has occurred. And you know,

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Speaker 2: we've got three and a half thousand local hunters here.

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Speaker 2: There are five hundred thousand hunters in Australia. But when

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Speaker 2: they've come up their shoulder to shoulder in some of

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Speaker 2: these reserves and yeah, that's not the hunting experience that

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Speaker 2: people are looking for. They're looking for a little bit

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Speaker 2: of country to themselves with a place to drop a bird,

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Speaker 2: go and retrieve it and not be impacted by the

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Speaker 2: next hunter, so it will give them an experience that

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Speaker 2: they will take home with them to Victorious South Australia

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Speaker 2: and so forth. And she better go to the NTO.

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Speaker 2: I'm going there to live.

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Speaker 1: Hey, I understand there is still got is there still

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Speaker 1: going to be some restrictions in terms of accessing the

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Speaker 1: reserve while the works are carried out. What do people

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Speaker 1: need to know? I suppose if they're planning on either

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Speaker 1: coming to the Northern Territory to hunt, or if they

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Speaker 1: they are if they're hunters out there listening this morning

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Speaker 1: who want to get out and about.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's absolutely minimal the impact on hunting because well

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Speaker 2: during construction is that from nine am to four pm daily,

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Speaker 2: seven days a week for the next two to three weeks,

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Speaker 2: like they are trying to do it as quick as

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Speaker 2: they can, working seven days a week, but during those

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Speaker 2: times there will be no hunting. There at Harrison Dam.

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Speaker 2: We go from six am to nine am, people can

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Speaker 2: still hunt and that's when most of the hunting occurs.

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Speaker 2: And then from four pm through till many about seven

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Speaker 2: at darkness, hunting will still be able to look. So

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Speaker 2: the impact is absolutely negligible because everyone sort of packed

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Speaker 2: up and gone home by nine and they don't get

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Speaker 2: back out there till generally about five o'clock when it

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Speaker 2: cools off and they've knocked off work. So it's not

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Speaker 2: much impact for just a long term benefit.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Hey, a couple of quick ones before I let

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Speaker 1: you go. In terms of in terms of potentially more

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Speaker 1: projects or other areas or programs for reck hunters, what

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Speaker 1: else are you wanting to see at this point?

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Speaker 2: Well, this is a magnificent thing. Yesterday Marie quare Boothby,

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Speaker 2: who's the Minister for Parks and Wilife, she came out

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Speaker 2: to the nt Field and Game Range to discuss issues

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Speaker 2: like that, and she gave us two hours of her time,

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Speaker 2: amount of time to travel through and from, and she

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Speaker 2: sat there and she listened. I couldn't believe it. I

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Speaker 2: haven't had anyone listen to me for a long time.

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Speaker 2: She listened, she took notes, she took our document away,

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Speaker 2: and we went on about new hunting reserves, about bag limits,

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Speaker 2: future species in action, the million dollar pig, and it

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Speaker 2: was just enlightening. I came home and I was jumping

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Speaker 2: out of the skin.

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Speaker 1: Good to hear, mate, it's nice to be listened to

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Speaker 1: isn't it exactly?

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Speaker 2: And that's that's what a government needs to play because

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Speaker 2: the stakeholders have a greater collective knowledge of what needs

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Speaker 2: to be done. And all you have to do is listen.

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Speaker 2: You get the advice for free. We've had meetings with

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Speaker 2: Josh Bergo in a week after the election, Mary Claire,

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Speaker 2: Jared Maley and Andrew mckaye. I'm flat out keeping up

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Speaker 2: with those guys.

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Speaker 1: Well, that is good to hear. But hey, before I

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Speaker 1: let you go this morning, mate's seen any more interesting birds?

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Speaker 1: This week? Is Tadira? You're you know the great Australian

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Speaker 1: bird count.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Channel billed cookies. Pair of those? They look like

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Speaker 2: a flying cross. What else have I seen? Uh? I

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Speaker 2: saw plenty of geese, I reckon. I saw eleven a

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Speaker 2: couple of birdik and ducks. They came back, They did

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Speaker 2: came back, and I haunted my pool and they only

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Speaker 2: came back for one day and they I heard them

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Speaker 2: get out there today. But they must have been sitting

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Speaker 2: in the tree iron off the pool. And they never

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Speaker 2: they never, they never went on the.

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Speaker 1: Brave bird, brave BIRDI con duck to jump in the

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Speaker 1: pool at your house.

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Speaker 2: I'll tell you what well the day the day we

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Speaker 2: had it built. The next morning the Disappair were out

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Speaker 2: there with a clutch of new Hatch things and I went,

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Speaker 2: that's just what a great home, and until they all

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Speaker 2: started having a heart in in there, and yeah, I

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Speaker 2: learned some pools don't go together.

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Speaker 1: Oh well, bart Irwin, always good to talk to you.

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Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time this morning, and no doubt

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Speaker 1: we'll talk to you again soon.

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Speaker 2: Thanks so much, Katie for giving this great new initiative

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Speaker 2: so we'll play some airtime. I really really do appreciate it.

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Speaker 1: No worries. I know we've got so many hunters out there,

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Speaker 1: but I know that they'll be grateful as well. I'm

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Speaker 1: sure good on you. Thank you so much for having

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Speaker 1: a chat with me today