19/08/2026
It’s the right decision!
Farmers, conservationists and invasive species experts all agree: Victoria’s feral deer are a pest, not a protected species.
Feral deer trash, trample and pollute precious landscapes like the Grampians and Dandenong Ranges. But under Victorian laws, they’re allowed to roam wherever they please.
We’ve united with the Victorian Farmers Federation and Environment Victoria, to call for urgent action to tackle feral deer and protect Victorian farms, wildlife and communities. Read more in the Herald Sun article, below. 👇
🗞️ FULL ARTICLE: Farmers and conservationists have united to warn Victorians about the problem of feral deer.
The new alliance, which includes Victorian Farmers Federation, the Invasive Species Council and Environment Victoria, is calling for urgent action to tackle feral deer which are trampling bushland, destroying farms, polluting waterways and putting communities at risk.
The alliance are concerned that the growth of the feral deer population is being driven by a law which protects them for hunting under Victoria’s Wildlife Act and recent cuts to frontline management programs.
Often described by farmers as ‘200kg rabbits’, feral deer are not native and were introduced for hunting. They are spreading westward and into areas around Melbourne.
John Kelly from the Invasive Species Council said it’s time Victoria followed every other mainland state and treated deer as an introduced pest.
“The government spends so much time and taxpayers money protecting feral deer for hunters, rather than protecting farms, wildlife and communities,” Kelly says.
“We’ve got it backwards. South Australia is on track to eradicate deer and this should be the goal in western Victoria. Instead we have a free-for-all where deer roam wherever they please.
“It’s time to properly fund co-ordinated deer control to empower communities.”
Ahead of the state election, the alliance is calling for all parties to commit to a properly funded deer control strategy and restore frontline funding. Farmers currently feel forced to go it alone.
Many spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and thousands of hours each year to try to prevent deer damage.
South Gippsland farmer Rob Liley, 82, says fallow deer are his biggest problem.
After they twice destroyed new plantings, he put a steel guard around every tree – costing about $60 per tree in materials alone.
“There’s not just a few about – they’re everywhere,” Liley says.
“They’re mischievous – they’ll go along and just pull the trees out.
“The worst part is you know the natural bush is being trampled.
“The understory is just being decimated.”
With a quarter of his property fenced off to protect biodiversity, he is trying to do his best for the environment, but says he is not being supported to do so.
“The question is not why they should be declared feral animals, but why aren’t they?” he says.
“It doesn’t matter how cute they are, they’re having an impact somewhere where they would not have normally had,” Milgate says.
“It can be managed, but when it gets to a certain point, you’ve got to do something about it because their impacts are greater than nature’s ability to actually withstand it.”
He says stakeholders must work together so it is not just farmers tackling the problem.
