Duck hunters are using scar trees for firewood and setting up camp on Indigenous cooking mounds, environmentalists have said, prompting calls for more cultural sensitivity in the shooting community.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Boort resident Paul Haw, 71, said damage to artifacts was visible around the edges of wetlands across the region, including Yando Swamp, Lake Leaghur and Lake Boort.
The latter is renowned for its dense population of scar trees.
Mr Haw was named an honorary caretaker of Dja Dja Warrung country by a community elder in the 1990s and has spent much of his life documenting evidence of Aboriginal culture in the region.
He said the last ten years of duck shooting saw fallen scar trees dissected with chainsaws, traditional cooking mounds dug up and surface artifact scatters disturbed.
Duck feathers, human excrement and used toilet paper also littered the water’s edge, he said.
Read more: ‘Into the aboriginal world’ of Lake Boort
“They shoot every description (of bird), and it’s not locals, it's people who don't value the environment,” Mr said.
He argued hunters should be required to sit cultural awareness training to minimise their impact on sites of significance.
“They have to be told, ‘don't camp on cooking mounds, don't burn scar trees, don't disturb stone scatters.”
Parks Victoria chief operating officer Simon Talbot, whose organisation manages Lake Boort, said a draft plan for the site was in development.
“We are protecting the cultural heritage of the area while allowing for recreational activities to take place at Lake Boort,” Mr Talbot said.
Parks Victoria were working with the Dja Dja Wurrung on the management plan.
Released last year, the draft document acknowledged reports of duck shooting causing damage to scar trees.
“Given the high cultural and natural values, Lake Boort is considered to be best suited for nature‐based recreation activities: walking, bird watching, cultural and environmental education and interpretation,” the plan read.
One of its goals was communicating to shooters, their clubs and the state’s Game Management Authority the cultural value of the site.
A final plan is due for release before the end of 2017.
The Lake Boort draft plan estimated around 100 shooters visited Lake Boort on opening weekend of the season, with between 10 and 20 shooters every hunting weekend thereafter.
But Mr Haw questioned the economic value of duck shooting to the region, saying visitors tended to camp by the water instead of stay in town. They also brought food and equipment with them rather than purchasing it in Boort, he said.
Mr Haw was instead pushing for environmental and cultural tourism at the site, a possibility that would wither should the natural habitat sustain more damage.
The presence of human excrement on the site also made it difficult to take tourists – especially school students – into the wildlife reserve, he said.