Toilet paper and human waste have been photographed strewn across rural Indigenous cultural sites, and important trees have been cut down for firewood. The alleged disregard for the wetland has resulted in growing calls for campers to be banned from the area during a controversial annual event.
Locals around Victoria’s Lake Boort believe shooters, who travelled three hours north from Melbourne, for Victoria’s controversial duck season, which ran between April 10 and June 5, trashed the reserve and other important lakes and swamps.
Dja Dja Wurrung’s Yung Balug clan elder Gary Murray said Lake Boort and its surrounds should be a “tranquil place and a sacred place”, and not regularly shot up by duck hunters.
Concerned the state government is not protecting the area, his mob are now considering petitioning Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to save it from “damage, desecration, and destruction”.
“We’re seriously considering putting in a Section 9, 10 and 12 application under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Protection Act to shut this duck shooting down on our lake,” he said.
“We have that long connection that goes back 120,000 years. And we’ve been looking after country all that time and we still are. Even though we might have been dispossessed, dispersed, deculturalised, shot out and genocided, we’re still here. And we are concerned about country and duck shooting.”
Indigenous elders feel unsafe entering cultural lands
Images supplied to Yahoo News highlight Murray’s concerns. One shows the Browns Lake State Game Reserve sign southwest of Boort pummelled with so many shotgun pellets the words “We acknowledge the traditional owners of this land” are barely legible.
Murray revealed most Indigenous elders don’t feel comfortable entering their cultural lands around the lakes because they’re worried about getting shot by a stray bullet.
“I don’t go there. I hate guns. I hate violence,” he said.
“People are either not going, or being very careful because we feel unsafe. Aboriginal people got shot out in the old days. So we have a psychological hangover about guns and cannons.
“So we’re not impressed by this duck shooting and it should go. They should go back to traditional hunting and gathering. If you want a duck, get under the water and get one. You don’t need a bloody shotgun.”
Scar trees reported damaged during duck season
Lake Boort itself is home to over 2000 scar trees, the largest number cut with stone tools in the world. At least two appear to have been cut apart by visitors to the site for firewood. And Geelong Duck Rescue’s (GDR) 2024 season compliance report alleges “at least 11 scar trees were damaged for firewood and 2 scar trees were found with human faeces and toilet paper around them”.
The report also documents other trees in the sensitive landscape — living and dead — that have been cut up with chainsaws. The group also supplied Yahoo with pictures showing bags of human excrement left around the Boort area, and toilet pits dug at the water’s edge.
GDR spokesperson Natalie Kopas said the alleged destruction is alarming.
“It just makes me feel sick. And it makes me wonder what’s happening everywhere else at sites we’re not monitoring. There are 20,000 places where you can shoot,” she said.
“We’ve shown that the authorities are not able to police this, they’re not able to monitor it. Duck shooters cannot be trusted to do this themselves.”
Scar trees alleged to be disappearing from wetlands
The state government’s hunting regulator Game Management Authority (GMA) maintains it is yet to receive formal complaints about destruction of Indigenous sites in 2024. But GDR claims to have sent its report to the agency, as well as the Department of Environment (DEECA), and several state government ministers.
Local historian Paul Haw is concerned scar trees vanish without a trace every year because they are burned to the ground. He has accused the state government’s Game Management Authority of failing to protect them.
“Most locals don’t shoot ducks anymore, and if they do, they take a couple and go home. The campers are all from Melbourne, Ballarat and Bendigo,” Haw claimed.
At nearby Yando Swamp which forms part of the Boort Wetlands, he’s photographed more ancient sites destroyed.
“There’s an Aboriginal cooking mound usually about every 100 metres around the edge of the lake — and some of them are around 10,000 years old,” he said. “But the shooters go and camp and light fires on them. And to think they don’t place any value of them. They’re Australia’s history and they should be preserved for both black and white people.”
Government backs duck shooters despite call for ban
In 2023, the Andrews Labor Government commissioned an inquiry into the annual duck season due to growing welfare and environmental concerns as well as dwindling public approval.
While animal welfare groups including the RSPCA and Wildlife Victoria welcomed the decision, a coalition of unions including the CFMEU, Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union and the Electrical Trades Union argued a duck season ban went against their members wishes and they threatened to take action against government projects.
While internally the Labor Party was understood to be split on the issue, the inquiry ultimately recommended a ban and it had been expected the government would fall in line. But when Jacinta Allan took over the leadership from Dan Andrews in September, she reportedly made a “captain’s call” and chose to ignore the findings of the inquiry and increase funding for duck shooting.
Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania are the only states where duck shooting is permitted after Western Australia, NSW and Queensland banned the practice.
Scar trees deserve protection because they’re culturally significant. They have the DNA of our ancestors on them.Gary Murray
Hunting authority responds to wetland destruction allegations
In 2024, the GMA issued 22 infringement notices to hunters and the same number of banning notices to protesters.
In response to the allegations about the destruction of Indigenous sites, GMA’s CEO Graeme Ford issued a statement to Yahoo News, claiming no reports of alleged destruction of Indigenous sites had been “formally” made during the 2024 season.
“While the GMA issued an infringement to a person for illegally cutting down a tree at Lake Boort State Game Reserve, this tree was independently assessed by an authorised Traditional Owner and was not a scar tree.”
“The GMA is not authorised to investigate compliance matters under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006.”
The GMA has online education modules that include information about respecting cultural heritage sites. And the Victorian Government has committed to introducing training into cultural heritage for all new game licence holders next year.
But Ford said the GMA was not authorised to investigate compliance matters under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006. Under current regulations, the Department of Premier and Cabinet is the responsible body for investigating damage to Aboriginal sites.
Responding to concerns about locals being unable to access their land during the season, Ford conceded there are some restrictions around waterways, but they generally remain open.
“People can be in areas such as State Game Reserves where duck hunting occurs, however, unauthorised people must stay 25 metres away from a prescribed hunting area shoreline between two hours before sunset until 10am the following day during the duck hunting season,” he said.
“Outside of these times people can freely enter the water if they are not hindering or harassing hunters.”