Balloted hunting in NSW

Balloted hunts: Tuesday 1 March - Tuesday 3 May 2022

Some NSW State forests are more popular with R-Licensed hunters than others. Bookings in these popular forests can be hard to secure, especially during the peak hunting period of March and April each year. To ensure hunter access and participation is managed sustainably and contributes positively to the NSW economy, DPI Hunting administers balloted hunting in some of these higher profile forests to provide fair and equitable opportunity to hunt for all R-Licensed hunters.

In 2022, eligible R-Licence holders were able enter the public land hunting ballot for:

Maragle South State Forest: 1 March - 17 April
Mannus State Forest (bows only area): 1 March - 3 May

2020 winners of the Mannus State Forest (Seymours Section) ballot were unable to hunt due to ongoing bush fire salvage operations and a sudden closure of the balloted area. A closed ballot, limited to the 2020 winners, was held for 2022 hunts, as the number of available written permissions has decreased.

Mannus State Forest and Maragle South State Forest will be removed from the open booking system during the balloted months, March and April 2022. Bookings for Maragle South will be unavailable from 18 April as Forestry Corporation of NSW (FCNSW) have requested a total public closure for hazard reduction burns. Normal bookings for R-Licensed hunters will resume when FCNSW advise that conditions are safe and hunting can resume.

2022 draw results

Winners for the 2022 public land hunting ballots were drawn on Wednesday 15 December 2021. Access the ballot results below and find your registration number to see if you’ve won permission to hunt in Maragle South State Forest or Mannus State Forest (bows only or Seymours section) during March and April 2022.

2022 ballot program

State forest name	Ballot dates	Permissions available
Maragle South	1 March - 17 April (Ballot periods 1 – 12)	38
Mannus (bows only)	1 March – 3 May (Ballot periods 1 – 16)	32
Mannus (Seymours section)	1 March – 3 May (Ballot periods 1 – 16)	CLOSED ballot limited to 2020 ballot winners.

Eligibility

Only individuals who hold a current NSW Restricted Game Hunting Licence (including minor R-Licence holders) are eligible to register for balloted hunts.

R-Licence holders must have completed their additional training before entering the public land hunting ballots. Registrations will be reviewed and individuals who do not meet these requirements will be removed from the draw.

Completing additional training

If you’ve not yet completed your additional R-Licence training, which must be completed before access is granted to book hunts online, simply watch the public land hunting tutorial and complete the declaration before registering.

Access online services to complete the training.

About balloted hunts

Written permissions to hunt are issued to ballot winners within the normal hunter/land ratio for each balloted forest.
Each permission is for four days.
Several ballot periods are reserved for youth hunts and all permissions in that period will be issued to eligible minors along with their eligible adult hunter.

Youth hunts

In 2022, two periods are reserved for youth hunts in Maragle South State Forest, three in Mannus State Forest (bows-only area) and one in the closed ballot. DPI Hunting has selected these periods as they fall over a weekend or during the school holidays.

Period 5: Thursday 17 March - Sunday 20 March
Period 10: Wednesday 6 April - Saturday 9 April (Mannus ballot only)
Period 12: Thursday 14 April - Sunday 17 April

As minor R-Licence holders must always hunt in the company of a fully licensed adult hunter, eligible applicants must apply as a group.

How to register:

Primary applicant (adult hunter) registers, indicating they are part of a group hunt.
Primary applicant creates a group name (e.g. surname of the applicants).
Secondary applicant (youth hunter) registers, using the group name.

2021 balloted hunt periods

Maragle South ballot	Mannus (bows only) and Mannus (Seymours section)	Period 1 Tuesday 1 March - Friday 4 March	Period 2 Saturday 5 March - Tuesday 8 March	Period 3 Wednesday 9 March - Saturday 12 March	Period 4 Sunday 13 March - Wednesday 16 March
		Period 5 (youth) Thursday 17 March - Sunday 20 March	Period 6 Monday 21 March - Thursday 24 March	Period 7 Friday 25 March - Monday 28 March	Period 8 Tuesday 29 March - Friday 1 April
		Period 9 Saturday 2 April - Tuesday 5 April	Period 10 (youth) Wednesday 6 April - Saturday 9 April	Period 11 Sunday 10 April - Wednesday 13 April	Period 12 (youth) Thursday 14 April - Sunday 17 April
		Period 13 Monday 18 April - Thursday 21 April	Period 14 Friday 22 April - Monday 25 April	Period 15 Tuesday 26 April - Friday 29 April	Period 16 Saturday 30 April - Tuesday 3 May

Ballot draw

Wednesday 15 December 2021

DPI Hunting uses Easypromos to conduct a random ballot of Eventbrite registration numbers to determine the winners list and an alternative list.

Results will be published to this page shortly after the draw.

Terms & conditions

By entering the 2022 ballot, licence holders agree to the collection and retention of personal information and for NSW DPI to apply for and issue written permission to hunt on their behalf.
Hunters must observe their written permission conditions, including all standard rules and regulations as well as the rules governing this ballot.
Hunters will receive official notification via email if successfully drawn in the ballots.

More information

If you have any questions about the ballot, contact our Wildlife Management Team on ballotedhunting@dpi.nsw.gov.au.

2020 ballot statistics

Maragle South State Forest ballot

No. of Written Permissions available	51
Total no. of ballot registrations	1,332
No. of eligible ballot registrations	1,059
Registration error rate	20.5%
No. of individual hunter registrations	1,051
No. of youth group ballot registrations	8
Chance of drawing a Written Permission	4.8%
16 ballot periods were available for allocation, with 3 ballot periods reserved for youth hunts Hunters who did not meet entry requirements such as completing online training and submitting harvest returns were removed from the ballot before the draw. Due to the suspension of public land hunting on 6 April 2020, balloted hunts for periods 10 to 16 were cancelled. These hunts have been reallocated to dates in 2021.

Mannus State Forest ballot

No. of Written Permissions available	64
Total no. of ballot registrations	951
No. of eligible ballot registrations	690
Registration error rate	27.4%
No. of individual hunter registrations	685
No. of youth group ballot registrations	5
Chance of drawing a Written Permission	9.3%
16 ballot periods were available for allocation, with 3 ballot periods reserved for youth hunts Hunters who did not meet entry requirements such as completing online training and submitting harvest returns were removed from the ballot before the draw. Balloted hunts for 2020 Mannus State Forest were unable to proceed as the forest was closed due to significant bush fire damage. These hunts have been re-allocated to dates in 2021.

Mannus State Forest - bow hunting only ballot

No. of Written Permissions available	32
Total no. of ballot registrations	352
No. of eligible ballot registrations	234
Registration error rate	33.5%
No. of individual hunter registrations	232
No. of youth group ballot registrations	2
Chance of drawing a Written Permission	13.7%
16 ballot periods were available for allocation, with 3 ballot periods reserved for youth hunts Hunters who did not meet entry requirements such as completing online training and submitting harvest returns were removed from the ballot before the draw. Due to the suspension of public land hunting on 6 April 2020, balloted hunts for periods 10 to 16 were cancelled. These hunts have been re-allocated to dates in 2021.

2019 ballot statistics

No. of Written Permissions available	115
Total no. of ballot registrations	1,463
No. of eligible ballot registrations	1,063
Registration error rate	27.3%
No. of individual hunter registrations	1,444
No. of youth group ballot registrations	19
Chance of drawing a Written Permission	10.8%
Hunters who did not meet entry requirements such as completing online training and submitting harvest returns were removed from the ballot before the draw.

2018 ballot statistics

No. of Written Permissions available	115
Total no. of ballot registrations	851
No. of eligible ballot registrations	734
Registration error rate	13.7%
No. of individual hunter registrations	829
No. of youth group ballot registrations	11
Chance of drawing a Written Permission	15.7%
There was a 28% error rate among hunters who were drawn in the ballot - these hunters did not meet the eligibility requirements relating to harvest returns and additional training. Successful hunters who did not meet these requirements were removed from the ballot and replaced by hunters drawn from the emergency list.

2017 ballot statistics

No. of Written Permissions available	115
Total no. of ballot registrations	714
No. of eligible ballot registrations	661
Registration error rate	8%
No. of individual hunter registrations	368
No. of youth group ballot registrations	173
Chance of drawing a Written Permission	22%
13 periods were comprised of one group with three individual hunters Nine periods were comprised of two groups with one individual hunter One period was comprised of solely individual hunters 53 Written Permissions were issued to individuals 62 Written Permissions were issued to groups In two of the three youth periods (5, 11 and 14) a group from the main ballot was also successful One youth group was successful in the main ballot, in addition to the three successful youth ballot groups.