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Towong Shire is unlikely to become the deer hunting capital of Victoria as few councillors support the idea, mayor Aaron Scales says. Cr Scales said councillors had no input in the draft Towong Shire Hunting Tourism Action Plan, which was put together by Tourism North East with some input from council staff. It follows mass community upset at the idea and the first draft of the proposal. Tallangatta Valley Progress Society president Stuart Morant said if successful the proposal to increase the shire’s hunting-based tourism industry could affect bio-security, safety and cause stock losses with very little, if any, boost to the local economy. He said the current local hunters kept deer numbers under control, but worried an influx of tourists would cause more poaching and require more policing. “Hunters are self-sufficient in the bush,” Mr Morant said. “They take their own food, swag and have a camp fire, most even have long-range fuel, so there wouldn’t be much of an economical benefit. “It’s meant to be a great tourism attraction but I think it would actually detract from other tourism in the shire, no one will go bushwalking if they think people are running around with high-powered rifles.” Mr Morant said the regular or local hunters knew to ask permission to cross onto private land but said the community feared poachers would cut hinges on gates, trespass or inadvertently shoot livestock. He was concerned farmers would confront trespassers, which could be dangerous when poachers were armed. Cr Scales said illegal poaching must be addressed before the shire encouraged more hunters in the region. “The current view of council is that any plan that goes ahead won’t have marketing and promotion plans in it,” he said. “It’s very obvious the community doesn’t want that to occur and we need to be dealing with issues we’ve got at the moment before we look at growing tourism industry hunting any further. “Actually my belief is the marketing for the tourism should be up to individual operators, not the ratepayers.” Cr Scales said council would be creating a second draft to the community after receiving their input on the original plan. He said all types of tourism could be accommodated in future within the shire through careful planning, but said there had been significant push-back to the marketing proposal. “Unfortunately there’s an illegal component here as well,” he said. “My belief is that there are more good hunters around and that hunters actually self-police and they will report poachers because they want to be able to hunt and hunt safely.”

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