The NSW Government has announced a $9 million deer control program, which it says will be on a scale unlike anything that has been tried anywhere in Australia.

National Parks and Wildlife Service will deliver the pilot research project that will pioneer untried deer control techniques.

Trapping and baiting, feeder and lures will be tried and evaluated, supplementing existing ground-based shooting control methods.

The research program will also invest heavily in monitoring and deer behaviour analysis as well as aerial culling.

A report by the Natural Resources Commission in 2017 showed over a four-year period from 2005–2009, the deer population increased by 30 per cent across NSW.

The report also warned that without a change in regulation, the feral animal could run wild across the entire state.



NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro said the additional funding would operate across public and private land.

"Nothing of this scale has been undertaken anywhere else in Australia," Mr Barilaro said.

"Deer don't care who owns the land they inhabit, and all land managers need to work together to tackle this growing problem."

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 53 seconds 53 s Wild deer captured on camera ( Supplied: Ted Rowley )

Hunting has failed

Ted Rowley, a beef cattle producer whose farm lies adjacent to the Kosciuszko National Park, said the deer were in plague-like proportions.

Working alongside his five neighbours and with the assistance of a commercial shooter, Mr Rowley shot 5,000 deer in 2018.

However, without an investment in monitoring and research, Mr Rowley said it was difficult to know whether his efforts would reduce to total population.

"We don't know whether that is enough to manage the population, whether it reduces it, or if we are long way short," he said.

"Deer are really smart and they learn really fast — hunting has failed to control the deer population and that's been demonstrated over a long period of time.

"Deer learn to avoid shooters, vehicles and lights — the more you shoot them the harder it gets.

A herd of deer in the early morning light caught on motion sensor camera. ( Supplied: Andrew Large )

Expand to coast

Chief executive officer of the Invasive Species Council, Andrew Cox, said a more comprehensive approach to deer population management was well overdue.

Mr Cox would like to see the project rolled out across the state.

"Once we get a few more tools to manage the deer population it would make sense to expand this to coastal regions," he said.

"Landholders are losing agricultural crops. Deer are voracious feeders and native animals are suffering as well."

Call to declare deer a pest

Ted Rowley has long been campaigning for the State Government to declare deer a pest, however the coalition has resisted calls from farmers to take action.

"I'm hoping it will change before the state election. There are lots of really practical things that can be done under the Biosecurity Act in NSW," Mr Rowley said.

"All the relevant minister has to do is put in a notice in the Government Gazette putting a control order on deer across NSW.

"That will send a clear message to all land managers that these animals need to be controlled."

Labor's agriculture spokesman, Mick Veitch, said if elected in March Labor would invest more money to manage pests and weeds.

"It's interesting after eight years in office John Barilaro finally has realised there is a problem with deer," Mr Veitch said.

"But this announcement falls way short of what Labor will do — we will put an additional $50 million into tackling weeds and pests in NSW.

However, Mr Veitch would not commit to labelling deer as a pest but said the Labor party would overhaul the way weeds and pests were determined in NSW.