BillyBushCook wrote on Mar 21^st, 2014 at 6:21pm:


I have no doubt that some locals are involved, in fact I’ve sprung a couple of them myself, however the local coppers advise that the overwhelming bulk are from Albury-Wodonga and to a lesser extent Melbourne.

Deer stalking is a noble sport, requiring high levels of physical fitness and endurance, coupled with expert navigational, tracking and stalking skills; and of course if you get into trouble out there in the scrub, bush and survival skills.
Long gruelling and often fruitless hunts over rugged mountainous and heavily forested terrain in poor weather conditions are common, and when on the odd occasion the hunter is successful, there's the long, arduous and repetitive backbreaking hikes ferrying meat back to camp.

In contrast, the Clayton’s deer stalkers prefer the air conditioned comfort, safety and ease of travel in their 4WD's, where in one night they can cover 500 times the hunting area of a man on foot. And of course, while they're driving along 'hunting', they can listen to music, have a few drinks and a laugh with the mates in the back, who are also manning the spotty and rifles; and then if they stumble across a deer, the spotty will hold the him nice and steady while the bloke in the back seat takes a shot out the window. If the deer is bagged on private property and the access gate is padlocked. Well it may go something like this.......

"Listen Bud ya know I hate walkin AND I've got a bad back......there's no way I'm fetching that bloody carcass and liftin it over the gate!!!.
There's no truuubbbs maaaate in gettin the 4WD over there !!She'll be sweet!! As ya know, there’s always an angle grinder in the back for the padlock or the fencing pliers under the seat to sever a swathe through the fence!!!
Jeeez don't worry maaate!! It's 3 o'clock in the bloody mornin, we'll be long goone before the Cocky even wakes up let alone notices the hole in the fence or his stock out roamin on the road!!
After ya finish butchering the carcass Bud, Just make sure ya rub a bit more mud over the rego plates ... ya never know... someone may spot us on the way out!!!
JEEEZ it's been a great night aye boys, lets ave another beer!!!... That good for nothin Cocky may as well clean up our empties ya know... after heez finished fixin the fence of course...... and for that matter all the spent brass ammo cases we left near his front gate he can ave too.... jeeeez we're generous bastards" HAAAHAAAHHAA!!
Look out I see headlights comin out the farm house....Bud you should be more careful not to shoot near his house... you've done gone and woken bastard up now!!
Lets flatten the accelerator boys... we've got a good head start on him now.. he'll never catch us ....and of course the nearest coppers are 50 km's away and they're all ASLEEP!! ..HAAAHAAAHHAA!!! She'll be sweet boys!!

This skit may seem far fetched and somewhat 'tongue in cheek',  however unfortunately it is very representative of the sort of lawlessness we have had to deal with over the years. Furthermore despite the best efforts of the local constabulary, other factors like Government cuts to local police numbers, police station closures, poor to nonexistent mobile phone coverage and very remote and rugged country areas have all served to contribute to the maintenance of the problem.