Andrew is correct - there hasn't been a duck "open" season for a long time, though I am unsure if it has been permanently stopped.
Farmers (or golf courses) can get a permit to destroy protected fauna (of which ducks are) similar to how farmers can get licences to cull kangaroos. The bigeest number of licences are issued to rice farmers in the Griffith to Moulamein area which is to mitigate damage to rice crops. However woith very little rice being planted at the moment (there seems to be a lack of water at the moment) I would be very surprised if many licenses have been issued (there has been some lobbying by the Game Council to take over this licencing from DECC formerly NPWS but I am not certain where this is at). In some ways the ducks on rice was a pseudo-duck season, with most of the shooters travelling up from Victoria.
Other people can get licences to remove ducks if they are causing damage. Lucerne farmers occassionally have problems with ducks, and golf courses occassionally do as well (though usually to trap and not shoot them), Albury had a similar problem last year. The licences are usually pretty hard to get in urban areas because of the contrroversy they cause (there was the story a few years ago on Birding-Aus of the "pet" duck that got shot on the golf course in the US).
Cheers,
Peter
> Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2007 16:55:13 +1100
> To:
> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Shooting ducks at Waringah
> From:
> CC:
>
> On Tue, Nov 20, 2007 at 02:54:30PM +1100, Evan Beaver wrote:
> > Have we banned duck hunting in Australia yet? Who's working on making it happen?
>
> Its largely under the control of the states. NSW has not had a
> recreational duck hunting since 1995. I think strictly NSW open seasons
> were suspended in 1995, the suspension reviewed in 2000 and the defacto
> ban made permanent by the minister in 2005? I gather Beattie passed a
> ban in 2005 in Qld and WA has no hunting since 1990. The drought has
> temporarily prevented hunting in SA and Victoria which are now the state
> were most hunting occurs. I would guess we'll see bans in other states
> over the next decade. Hunters still kill ducks in NSW under licenses
> given to farmers to reduce ducks interference with agriculture -
> particularly rice farming - not sure how many ducks are killed under
> such licenses.
>
> Andrew
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