NSW Department of Primary Industries

Hunting

Header Icon

hunting

Scroll to content

Expenditure

$1,541m

est

Dollars Icon

Expenditure by hunters supports many businesses

Shield Icon

Helps protect endangered native species

Fishing Icon

Social and economic benefits for the State of NSW

Regulated hunting activities generate a range of social and economic benefits for NSW. In 2017–18, hunters spent an estimated $1.54 billion on hunting related activities and products. The total economic contribution to NSW was estimated to be in excess of $1.8 billion89, z.

Arrow left Arrow right

New Get Permission hunting app launched in time for Easter

NSW DPI’s new Get Permission app is revolutionising the way permission is granted to hunters to enter any lands for the purpose of hunting. The app allows hunters to request and store permissions from landholders and store copies of licences. The app also allows landholders to authorise hunters to hunt on their lands, review the permissions they have granted and revoke them at any time. This is a joint initiative of DPI and NSW Police.

Learn more Arrow right

GunSmart

NSW DPI, in partnership with the NSW Police Force, promotes the safe use of firearms by hunters and raises awareness of firearms safety through their GunSmart campaign. GunSmart reminds Firearms Licence holders how to be smart around their firearms and to always practice the fundamentals of firearm safety. The campaigns objective is that licence holders retain knowledge of firearms safety and practice firearms safety every time they handle a firearm.

Learn more Arrow right

Expenditure

Expenditure by hunters supports many businesses, especially in regional NSW, including outdoor and camping products, specialist hunting stores and tourism related businesses (fuel, food and accommodation).

HUNTING EXPENDITURE BY CATEGORY

Source: RMCG (2017)

Benefits

By helping public land managers and private landholders control both introduced and native wildlife, hunting helps to protect threatened ecosystems and species and also performs an invaluable service for many primary producers. The main wildlife species targeted in NSW are rabbits, feral deer, foxes, feral goats and feral pigs.

Licensed game bird hunters help control damage to rice crops during the crop establishment stage when they are especially vulnerable to wild ducks. Game birds are native species able to be legally hunted by licensed hunters in NSW under a mitigation program, supervised by NSW DPI, for sustainable agricultural management purposes. A maximum harvest level is determined annually based on the best available scientific information on regional populations of each game duck species.

Regulating Hunting

The NSW DPI Game Licensing Unit regulates hunting in NSW with NSW Police. A range of programs are administered to ensure hunting in NSW is conducted safely, ethically and sustainably. The programs include licensing, communications and stakeholder engagement, education and awareness, wildlife management and compliance and enforcement.

Game Licensing
Unit Regulatory
Statistics 2017-18

Source: DPI (2018g)
Compliance

Move Beyond Compliance

  • First illegal hunting survey initiated
  • Launch of Get Permission App
  • DPI Hunting Facebook page launched
  • Project Drone to monitor compliance
Education

Education

  • 2916  courses delivered
  • Over 230,000  education and awareness items disseminated
Law

Enforce the Law

  • 46 illegal hunting incidents detected
  • 131 Enforcement Actions
  • 309 investigations completed
Standards

Set Standards

  • 1,099 additional licence holders
  • 8970 annual call centre enquiries
Monitoring

Monitor Compliance

  • 39 on-ground operations
  • 338 licence holder field contacts
  • 140 non-hunting incidents
  • 21,293 camera surveillance hours
Support

Support to Comply

  • 8 trade show events with over 22,300 contacts
  • 298,364 eNewsletter deliveries annually
  • 504,533 website hits annually
www.dpi.nsw.gov.au