Great report Paul and well done at keeping the savages at bay for at least a
day.
2009/3/22 Paul Dodd <>
> For the first time Ruth and I found ourselves at a wetland at dawn
> yesterday, hoping we wouldn't see any birds. We had decided to participate
> in the Coalition Against Duck Shooting's protest against the Victorian
> Government's decision to allow a duck hunting season in 2009. I do not
> normally consider myself an activist, and nor do I particularly consider
> myself a "greenie" (whatever that means) - but as a lover of birds and
> wildlife, and someone that spends as much time as possible outdoors in our
> National Parks and reserves, I was so appalled by the government's decision
> that I decided that I needed to act.
>
> The story starts some years ago when Ruth and I first had contact with
> Laurie Levy, Director of the Coalition Against Duck Shooting, and the
> "face"
> of the anti-duck shooting campaign since about 1986. Ruth had to do an
> assignment for her university course, and chose to write about the
> Blue-billed Duck. In the course of doing her research she contacted Laurie
> to ask him about the impact of duck hunting on this particular species. A
> more passionate man would be hard to imagine! Laurie has worked tirelessly
> over the years to have duck hunting around Australia, and particularly in
> Victoria, banned - and is willing to talk to anyone and everyone on the
> subject, and does!
>
> More recently we met up with Laurie through our involvement with the
> Victoria branch of Birds Australia, and we have had many opportunities to
> talk with him about duck hunting. Up until 4 February this year, we all
> thought that there would be no duck hunting season this year. Unfortunately
> that was not to be the case - the government announced a "limited" duck
> hunting season of 49 days duration. As soon as we saw Laurie again after
> that, Ruth and I said that we would participate in the duck rescue effort
> and protest on the opening weekend.
>
> On Thursday last week, we attended our orientation meeting - where we were
> trained in what to do and how to behave at the protest. We were also told
> that this year we would be going to Sale - which has long been regarded as
> the heart of the duck hunting community. In the weeks leading up to the
> season, the Coalition Against Duck Hunting had surveyed the game reserves
> around the state and decided that the Gippsland wetlands were the only ones
> with enough water - as a result, that's where we we were going. The
> briefing
> covered how to behave towards the shooters, the police and wildlife
> officers, what to do with injured waterfowl, what to do with dead waterfowl
> and so on.
>
> At 4:45am on Saturday morning, in quite thick fog, we found ourselves at
> one
> of the campgrounds in Sale with a number of other protesters. We checked in
> to say that we had arrived, and were assigned our teams, but we had no idea
> at this stage of where we were going, or even how many people would be
> there. After the organisers had a brief, huddled conversation, the word
> spread, "It's Dowd's..." - meaning that we'd be heading for Dowd's Morass,
> about 12km from Sale. In the next half hour, we had a cup of coffee,
> prepared ourselves in whatever ways were necessary and got ready to leave.
> It is interesting to note that at least one newspaper photographer was also
> with us, documenting the preparations.
>
> By 5:15am, we were in a queue of cars and other vehicles and slowly heading
> out of the campground. We first headed towards the town, and as we were
> heading in that direction a long queue of vehicles were heading in the
> opposite - direction. It took me a moment or two to realise, that we were
> being passed by the head of our own queue, as we were heading to a
> roundabout to turn around - it was considered safer to do this than have a
> hundred or so vehicles turning right from the campground. As we rounded the
> roundabout, I could see other vehicles joining us - protesters that had
> stayed in motels or other accommodation rather than the campground. We
> passed the police station and saw that all the officers were standing out
> the front looking at the convoy in a rather bemused manner.
>
> During the drive to Dowd's Morass there were fog-free areas and we got to
> see an impressive sight - a queue of vehicles kilometres long, all with one
> thought in mind - to protest against, and hopefully to stop duck hunting.
> Ultimately we turned into a dirt road and headed along that for a while
> before being directed to an area on the side of the road to park. Directly
> in front of us, was a camp of some sort, with a number of 4WD vehicles, and
> tents. After a moment or two, it clicked - these were the hunters - the
> "enemy"! There were about eight vehicles, a number of tents and a larger,
> open tent set up as a cooking area. The hunter's camp was separated from
> the
> area where we parked by wire fence (although both areas were public land).
>
> Once we got out of the car, we prepared ourselves for entering the water.
> For Ruth and I that meant changing our shoes for wetsuit booties, rolling
> our trouser legs up and donning orange reflective vests. We walked up the
> track to where the main body of protesters were gathering - it seemed like
> we we walking for ages, but in actual fact it was only a hundred metres or
> so. Someone was yelling out, "Whistles! Come here if you need a whistle!"
> So
> we collected our whistles. Someone else was handing out pillowslips, so we
> collected a couple of those. Reality set in then - the pillow slips are for
> covering the wounded birds that we would find - covering them has a calming
> affect - however it is important to not get your pillowslip wet, because
> the
> bird may suffocate.
>
> Team leaders were calling out, "Team 3 here!", "Team 7 here!" and so on.
> Ruth and I had been assigned to Dave Evans - in Team 1. Dave is the
> coordinator - he is Laurie's eyes and ears on the ground, and decides which
> teams go where and what they should do. There were at least 12 teams with
> upto about 15 members in each team. Our team briefing was short - stay with
> your team leader and do what they say. Team leaders wear a patch front and
> back with the team number in BIG red digits. We'll be entering the water
> before first light (at 7:10am). The law says that the hunters are allowed
> to
> commence shooting at 7:10am, and the protestors are not allowed in the
> water
> until 10am. We will be ignoring that law - if we get caught, it is a $100
> fine. If anyone isn't comfortable with breaking that law, they should leave
> the team now (no-one left). Remember to stay 10m from the hunters. Do not
> flush birds that are on the water. Do not flush birds from the reeds. If
> you
> see birds flying overhead, use your whistles to scare the birds AWAY from
> the guns - not TOWARDS.
>
> Next was Laurie's briefing to the group. Thanking everyone for attending,
> reminding us of why we're here - to rescue wounded waterfowl and to prevent
> the hunters from actually killing and wounding the birds by scaring the
> birds, or by distracting the hunters. Please avoid any confrontations,
> abide
> by the 10m law. Laurie then introduced the representatives from Wildlife
> Victoria - they would be waiting on the shore to collect wounded birds - a
> mobile veterinary clinc would be established to treat any wounded birds
> brought in. Next the legal representative briefed us - please see him if
> there were any legal issues - overbearing police or wildlife officers, and
> so on - but above all, RESPECT the police. Finally a time-check - we'll be
> entering the water in about 25 minutes.
>
> Next the police and wildlife officers met with Laurie and the legal
> representative. The police representative, a sergeant, reminded Laurie of
> the law - to which Laurie said that we would be entering the water before
> 10am. The police didn't seem too concerned by that, and expressed a desire
> for a confrontation-free day. The wildlife officers, on the other hand,
> seemed to take it as a personal attack that the protesters were there, and
> that we would dare interfere with their nicely run opening weekend. I was
> rather surprised by this - I genuinely thought that DSE officers would be
> anti-hunting and sympathetic to the protesters cause - but clearly not.
>
> A quick word on the protesters. I wasn't sure what to expect - I imagined
> that the majority would be "greenies", "hippies", "tree-huggers" - the
> people you see chained to trees to stop logging. Sure, there were
> definitely
> people that fitted that mould. Plenty of beards and dreadlocks. But there
> were many others - I'm a business owner, there were clearly other people
> like me. There were shopkeepers, students, bird watchers, office workers,
> retired people, nature lovers - ordinary people. The one thing we had in
> common was a disgust that people would kill living creatures for sport.
> More
> than that, though, was that a 21st century government would actually ALLOW
> that behaviour.
>
> Around 6:30am the sky lightened somewhat and Dave yelled out, "To your
> teams". Everyone moved towards their team leaders and we headed to the
> water. Someone had placed carpet over the barbed wire fence (whilst the
> property was public, cattle are allowed to graze there), so we easily
> clambered over the fence and headed towards the water - about 170 people.
> As
> we stepped into the water, a wildlife officer screamed at us, "5m from the
> water! 5m from the water!" Dave yelled, "COME ON!" So with that, we broke
> the law and entered the water.
>
> The water wasn't cold, but the mud was deep, thick and incredibly sticky.
> Within 10m or so from shore, we were knee-deep in water and mud. Every so
> often, though, we would take a step and sink to thigh-depth. Walking was
> incredibly hard-going. Even though the sky was lightening, the fog was
> still
> thick - adding an eerie, atmospheric mood to the morning. We walked out
> parallel to an old fence in the water. As we walked out I could see ducks
> in
> the water - Dave saw that I had noticed and said, "They're decoys." As we
> approached a large island in the middle of the morass, I could just make
> out
> a figure on the shore in the gloom - a hunter (or "shooter" to use the
> protester's terminology). I pointed the shooter out to the others. Once
> again, reality bit.
>
> Once we came within 10m or so of the island, we decided to turn right. It
> was just about 7am and still very foggy. At that moment the guns started -
> at least 10 minutes before the official start of the season. What they were
> shooting at is anyone's guess, because we saw nothing. We followed the
> island around to the right and as we passed one shooter, a team member from
> another team was there tying the shooter into his nook with police tape and
> streamers! Apparently this shooter, Steve, was known to the protesters from
> previous years. He seemed to take it quite good naturedly! We kept moving,
> passing more decoys in the water and passing other shooters. Certainly none
> of the shooters we passed were shooting at anything, but all we could hear
> above our squelching was gunfire. After about 20 minutes, we were satisfied
> that all shooters were covered further around to the right, but more than
> that, there were simply no ducks to be seen!
>
> We turned around and started heading back the way we came. The morning was
> becoming lighter, although it was still foggy. We passed the streamer-bound
> shooter. He hadn't touched the streamers or tape that were surrounding him.
> He gave us a wave as we passed by. We crossed the mostly submerged fence
> and
> started to head to the left hand side of the island. As we walked along we
> passed through a collection of decoys. "Oy! Get away from my decoys!", the
> hunter shouted. "I'm supposed to cooperate with you lot!" As we walked on,
> the hunter's wife (one of two female shooters we heard of on that day)
> yelled at us, "You guys are a joke! What the hell do you think you're doing
> here? Piss off, the lot of you!" This provoked one of the protesters in our
> team to start yelling insults back again. In the end, nothing worse
> happened
> - just a few insults traded. On the other side of the hunter's patch was a
> camoflaged boat, and the other hunters' son, who was also a hunter. Dave
> commented that this was one of the best set ups he had ever seen.
>
> Ruth and I decided to stay and shadow these hunters while the rest of our
> team found a gap through the middle of the island to the other side (where
> we could continuously hear gunfire). We also thought that it was best if we
> stood guard over these hunters, since they had engaged in trading insults
> with our team - I was worried that if others stayed, the situation may
> escalate. Fortunately a photographer from The Age had arrived, and was busy
> taking photos - mostly of the hunters, but also of protesters in the
> background, with the hunters in the foreground. Ruth and I stood guard, in
> the area between the hunters and their decoys. On a couple of occasions, we
> saw Black Ducks flying overhead. Mostly they were too high - shotguns only
> have a range of 50-80m, but sometimes we saw the ducks heading in our
> direction at less than this height. We blew our whistles as loudly as we
> could, and amazingly they turned around and flew out of the range of the
> guns!
>
> Once the photographer left, on several occasions, the female hunter fired
> shot over our heads - not shooting at anything, just trying to intimidate
> us. To be honest, she was by far the most aggressive of all the hunters we
> encountered. Other hunters on the shore side of the morass also fired at us
> - generally they fired almost straight up so the shot would come raining
> down on us. As the shot comes down, it sounds like hail falling. It doesn't
> hurt, provided that you're not looking up. Every time the shot came raining
> down on us, the hunter and his wife would laugh. Every time ducks flew
> over,
> well out of range, we'd hear the gunfire from all around us. For some
> reason
> "our" hunters didn't fire at the ducks - I guess they realised that they
> were too far away. The female hunter yelled out to us a few times, "I hope
> you're enjoying ruining our day", "What is it like getting paid $100 to
> stand there?" I couldn't resist - I had to respond to that one... "I don't
> get paid, where did you hear that?" To which she replied, "We've been told
> that you lot get paid $100 each to protest." I laughed and told her that
> that was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever heard.
>
> We noticed some police and wildlife officers had walked out and were
> talking
> to a nearby hunter. When they finished talking with that hunter, they
> started to head towards our hunters. We decided that the best course of
> action was to walk away - not because we were afraid to be fined, but
> rather, if we were fined we'd have to leave the wetland for the remainder
> of
> the day. As we were walking away, Dave and the rest of our team appeared
> and
> were heading towards us. As quickly as I could I moved up to him and told
> him the police and wildlife officers were there. Dave got on the radio and
> asked if anyone at base knew if the police were fining people, or kicking
> them off the water. So far no-one knew, which presumably meant that no-one
> had been kicked off, but we couldn't be certain. It was decided that the
> team, and a second team that joined up with ours, would keep moving ahead
> of
> the police, and two members of the other team would act as "sacrificial
> lambs", and walk towards them and then back to shore. The police paid no
> attention to the protesters, so we figured that we'd probably be safe.
> Nonetheless, we felt that the police and wildlife officers were keeping our
> hunters busy, and we could probably be better used elsewhere.
>
> We spent another hour walking to the left of the morass, passing flocks of
> "decoys". We encountered another team of protesters who told us that all
> the
> shooters on the left side of the morass had given up for the day. The
> season
> started at 7:10am and these hunters had given up before 9am. Quite a
> satisfying start, I thought.
>
> Rumours abounded that there were 100 vehicles on the other side of the
> morass (presumably hunters vehicles). We could still hear gunfire from the
> other side of the island, so there were definitely shooters still there. We
> discussed tactics for a minute or two - there were basically two options,
> head to shore (and risk getting booked by the police) or attempt to cross
> the island to the other side. We chose the shore approach because we
> thought
> that may be faster, despite the obvious risk that if two teams, amounting
> to
> about 30 protesters, were caught, we'd be out of action for the remainder
> of
> the day. As we walked towards the shore, we called in to base for
> transport,
> and a minivan miraculously appeared. Unfortunately, as we reached the edge
> of the water, we realised that the land was private property, so we
> couldn't
> cross it - so we decided on plan B.
>
> We started heading back across the water towards the island. A number of
> the
> protesters decided to go back to base to rest (we'd been wading through
> water and mud for about three hours). Once we reached the island, we waded
> through thick mud to the path through to the other side. The water reached
> thigh depth and more. One of the protesters, Sarah, who was the leader of
> the other team that joined us, was probably the best dressed protester of
> all! I think she would not have looked out of place in Chapel Street, with
> her long black hair, wearing fashionable jeans, and a long red woollen
> jacket.
>
> I was keeping up with Dave as we reached the path through the island. I
> could hear squelching behind me and had assumed that it was Ruth - but when
> I turned around, she wasn't there. I walked back through the channel and
> Sarah told me that Ruth was resting a bit further back. I came across her
> on
> the edge of the island, resting against a branch - she looked exhausted. I
> asked if she wanted to go back and she nodded, "Yes." It was now well past
> 10am so we were safe to exit the water.
>
> We walked back and came out of the water. Most other teams were already
> out.
> Back at base we saw Laurie being interviewed by a TV reporter. Only a
> couple
> of police officers were left and they were chatting with protesters over
> cups of coffee. We walked up to the veterinary tent - and found that they
> had had NO business at all that day. We walked over to the catering tent
> and
> had a couple of cups of soup, and a vegan sausage on bread - definitely a
> new experience for me! Laurie's interview finished up and he came to the
> catering tent. We asked him how the day had gone - he told us that it had
> been very quiet - almost no birds, and to that point no casualties at all.
> Apparently two hunters had been booked by the police, one for having no
> licence. Also two protesters were booked, both for violating the 10m rule.
> No one had been booked for entering the water before 10am. As we were
> talking to him, a team member came up to Laurie and gave him a dead duck in
> a pillow slip. The one and only casualty of the day.
>
> Back at the hunters camp, they had come in from the water. They were
> sitting
> around their camp fire drinking beer. The day was over for them.
>
> I am only left with one question. Why, John Brumby, why do we need this
> ridiculous "sport"?
>
>
> http://www.theage.com.au/national/protesters-gun-for-wild-west-shooters-as-d
> uck-season-opens-20090321-951p.html<http://www.theage.com.au/national/protesters-gun-for-wild-west-shooters-as-d%0Auck-season-opens-20090321-951p.html>
>
> http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/duck-shooters-clash-with-ac
> tivists-20090321-94x1.html<http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/duck-shooters-clash-with-ac%0Ativists-20090321-94x1.html>
>
> Paul Dodd
> Docklands, Victoria
>
>
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