09/06/2026
Parks Vic / DEECA are conducting an aerial deer cull in Bunyip State Park next week. This is in addition to the two ground-based deer culls in Bunyip park over the past two months.
Now. I am well aware of the environmental damage caused by deer and this post is not intended as a defence of them. While I personally do not support the killing of healthy animals or culling programs in general, that is not the purpose of this discussion. I am not here to debate deer management or argue about deer with anyone.
My primary concern is the aerial cull. There are four wildlife shelters located along the boundary fenceline of Bunyip State Park, as well as countless native animals that live throughout the bushland. The potential impact on these animals and these wildlife shelters should have been carefully considered.
What happens when helicopters repeatedly fly low over forest habitats while firing gunshots into the bush? The result is significant stress, panic and disruption. It will disturb native animals, forcing them to flee, abandon nesting sites, separate from their babies, interrupt feeding and breeding behaviours and expend valuable energy.
The consequences will ripple through the entire forest, affecting countless wild animals and placing additional strain on vulnerable creatures recovering at the four local wildlife shelters, where repeated noise and disturbance will undermine their progress and jeopardise their path back to health.
Before these aerial shooting programs commence, DEECA, who oversee and issue shelter licences, should have directly notified these wildlife shelters. They should also be fully transparent about the specific safeguards in place to protect animals housed at these shelters, as well as non-target wildlife in the bush, including rehabilitated animals now living in and around the park.
Furthermore, this is a dense forest with a thick tree canopy cover. How can anyone honestly claim they can clearly identify and acurately kill every animal from a helicopter? According to a CSIRO aerial cull study "the mean number of bullet wounds per deer ranged from 1.43 to 2.57".
Does anyone verify on the ground that these animals have actually died? What happens to the carcasses afterwards? There is already an unmanaged wild dog problem in the park. Could this program provide an additional food source for them and potentially make that problem worse?
As I write this, the Police helicopter is flying at 795 feet over my national park, it is way over the other side of the hill- 2.5kms away as the crow (or chopper) flies. They are not shooting from the aircraft.
Granted, the Police helicopter is larger and louder than those used during aerial culls but the helicopters used for aerial culls buzz the bush, typically flying as low as 150–500 feet. The Police were here for 7 mins, the cull will be 11hrs a day for 5 days straight.
Yet despite being much further away and posing no direct threat, the noise of the Police helicopter alone is enough to send my joeys into panic. They are terrified and highly distressed. Watching them react like this makes it impossible to accept claims that low-flying helicopters used in aerial culls have little or no impact on wildlife. If a helicopter nearly 2.5kms away can cause this level of fear and disruption, imagine the effect of chopper flying hundreds of feet lower while randomly shooting.
