"Whenever I travel around Australia I'm always amazed by the hold that exotic species have obtained over this land.
 
Visiting Cape York a decade ago I expected to find unsullied wilderness; instead I found rainforests harbouring herds of feral cattle, grubbing pigs, flushes of Latin American carpet grass and slopes choked with hyptis. Cattle had kicked over a termite mound in which paradise kingfishers - one of Australia's most spectacular rainforest birds - were nesting.
 
It's little better anywhere else. Exotic pests are stealing into all of our national parks and wilderness zones."
Tim Low, a founder of the Invasive Species Council, writing in Feral Future
 
 
Even though the impacts are immense and ongoing, invasive species aren't being tackled seriously. An alarming number of invasive species are still coming in, staying, and spreading in Australia.
 
The Invasive Species Council is an independent, non-government organisation set up to campaign and advocate to stop further invasions, and to contain invading species already present.

The Victorian Government is inviting expressions of interest from landholders to participate in a scheme to facilitate recreational hunting of duck, quail and deer on private properties.
 
Landholders would receive direct or in-kind payments from hunters and access to government incentives and subsidies to improve habitat and hunting conditions.
 
The Invasive Species Council has conducted a preliminary assessment of this proposal, focusing on deer hunting, and concludes in its report, A Deer Mistake, that it would be environmentally damaging.
 
This is despite the Department of Sustainability and Environment claiming that the primary aim of the scheme is environmental and that it will result in improved outcomes for biodiversity conservation.
 
Find out more
Download the full report: A Deer Mistake (1.9MB)
Find out more about the Victorian Government's plans to facilitate recreational hunting on private land as well as its decision to allow recreational hunting in the state's new Red Gum national parks by visiting our Hunting and Feral Animals Hot Issues page.