[Music]
The Australian states of Victoria and South Australia have some of the best deerstalking
you will find anywhere in the world.
From July 2013, Victoria is shedding a great wodge of bureaucracy that stops international
hunters from coming here.
I'm out to see what's going to be on offer with the help of pro deerstalker Mark Reams.
Deer stalking is pretty big here now, it is quite popular, there is a lot more deer around
now, than there has been in previous years.
It is getting quite popular now.
What are we after this morning.
We are going to go down the bush line here and have a look for a fallow deer.
There are quite a few in this area.
Some good stags have been shot here.
With any luck we will wander down there and hopefully run into a couple and see how we
go.
You only have fallow deer here, what else ...
We have red deer here as well.
Not as many.
They are easily noticed so they get shot, but fallow are coming on quite good here.
Species include chital, hog deer, red deer and this one, Sambar.
One of the eight deer species is fallow.
Mark filmed this old boy during the rut, which takes place in April.
It wasn't long before Mark came back.
This is a sportsman's paradise.
Now a fallow herd can be tough to get near to, with so many eyes alert for danger.
We have got some deer just over the rise here, about 300 yards down.
I think with the dirt trails we might get back into the bush line here, creep down very
quietly and have a look and see if there is a trophy animal here.
If not see if we can get a nice eating one or something like that.
In Australian-rules deer hunting they employ an Aussie early alert system.
Not only are we trying to outwit the deer but the marsupials are keen to sound the alert
if things aren't right.
A happy kangaroo means happy deer.
So that means we have to head into the bush and work around.
There are like 50 kangaroos down there.
Plus the deer we have got 50 to 60 sets of eyes watching out for us.
So we will sneak up through the cover as quiet as we can and see how we go.
We don't want them to get the bounce on us.
The bounce ...
We have to be silent.
However, we are in a gumtree wood, and gumtrees like to keep down the competition by occasionally
bursting into flames.
They create that effect by shedding dry bark and branches, and waiting for someone to drop
a cigarette in the wrong place during the dry season.
It means we are walking on what is effectively kindling.
Still - what do I know about the natural environment?
We hear this.
[Koala growl]
Which I identify as this.
And Mark confirms is this.
It was a koala.
He is calling out for his girlfriends.
Despite the wildlife of the Pacific Rim conspiring against us, we manage to get into position.
But they haven't invented a bullet that passes accurately through eucalyptus, so Mark says
we have to move one dry tree trunk nearer.
And that's our mistake.
We trip the kangaroo security beam - and they're off, taking the deer with them.
So nothing mucks up your morning's stalking like kangaroos do.
So can you come and hunt deer here?
Yes you can.
All the deer species are introduced from somewhere, none are A-grade Australian wildlife, so stalking
them is something the Government encourages.
So we are trying to open and grow that market and we really encourage people to come to
this country and take advantage particularly of our wonderful game resources in Victoria.
Basically, Victoria is open for business as far as hunting is concerned.
Open for business.
We would love to see any international visitor here.
Lots of Australians go over seas.
We would like to see that come the other way as well.
Like South Africa and the springbok, Ireland and the red stag, and the Bahamas and the
blue marlin, Australia belongs to a long list of countries around the world that hunts its
national symbol.
Kangaroos have reached plague proportions in many parts of Australia.
But Australian shooters and the Australian government take kangaroo culls extremely seriously.
There is a great layer of regulation before anyone is allowed to shoot a roo, and farms
have to apply for a 'destruction permit'.
Mark takes us to on one such farm.
It's not long before a mob of kangaroos cross our path and we drop one where it stands using
Sauers new 101 in .30-06.
There are a lot of these animals aren't there?
Kangaroos, yes.
Especially now in the southern parts of Australia.
Southern grey kangaroo.
Due to the farmers opening up all the countryside.
Their numbers have exploded.
Now the government issues permits to have them shot, otherwise they just eat all the
food and die in mass numbers.
Now they shoot them under the permit system.
It is an option farmers have now and help them clear out the land a little bit.
Whereas other things like rabbits, feral pigs in the northern territories there is a kind
of wipe clean order isn't there.
Yes an open ... type thing where they just want to eradicate entirely.
With the kangaroo it is under a more managed programme.
It is an incredible animal.
We have no famous reference for this in the UK at all.
But look at these extraordinary hind legs for getting around on.
Half the kangaroos legs muscles develop for bounding are able to stabilise as it hops
and small front legs which are near useless only for grasping things, but as they say
they can travel huge distances in shorts amount of time.
They are perfectly designed for the country.
And you can't build a kangaroo proof fence.
No, a six foot fence is nothing for a kangaroo to jump.
A normal farm fence like these ones is just a mild obstacle.
Tell me about the eating of these things.
That looks like a reasonably good leg.
Now in Australia they are shot by professionals for the human consumption trade.
So now that you can have kangaroos that have been processed in an abattoir and you can
buy selected cuts in the supermarkets now.
Just like any game.
Any game, lean, high in protein, low in fat.
It is a very good quality meat.
We came for deer but we ended up with a kangaroo and we did try roo meat that night.
It was
certainly lean but the rib-eye steak was more appealing.
And don't forget that deer stalking in Victoria will be open to all international hunters
from July 2013.