Victorian duck hunters warned about littering ahead of 2026 season
Duck shooters leave an estimated 1.4 million shotgun cases every year. (Supplied: David Mould)
In short:
Victorian volunteers say they collected a "skip's worth" of rubbish left over from last year's duck hunting season.
They are calling for more to be done about littering offences ahead of the 2026 duck hunting season.
What's next?
Victoria's Game Management Authority says more than 100 authorised officers will be deployed on compliance and enforcement operations this season.
In the wake of last year's duck hunting season, a group of local duck rescue volunteers headed to Lake Connewarre, near Geelong, and began cleaning up the mess left behind.
What the Geelong Duck Rescue group found was enough rubbish to fill a skip bin.
"The stuff we keep pulling out from the wetlands every year really continues to shock us, though it probably shouldn't at this point," group volunteer David Mould said.
While there were plenty of shotgun cartridges and plastic wadding that comes out of the cartridges, there was also fishing line, fencing, tyres and even an office chair.
The Geelong Duck Rescue group on a clean-up mission on the Bellarine Peninsula. (Supplied: David Mould)
It is possible not all the rubbish came from duck hunters, but Victoria's Game Management Authority (GMA) estimates 1.4 million pieces of shotgun cases and plastic wadding are left by duck shooters every year .
"There's a whole lot of really awful stuff cluttering up our wetlands and it's not a great space for the birds to be living in anymore," Mr Mould said.
Enforcing littering offence laws
Mr Mould said he and other volunteers often made complaints to the GMA about littering on game reserves, but said "in all cases, they ignore it".
"They say, 'This is just too hard to police. We're putting it into the too-hard basket,'" he said.
David Mould wants more people to be aware of littering in game hunting reserves. (Supplied: David Mould)
According to a summary on the GMA website "a total of 48 offences were detected throughout the 2025 duck season", although it's unclear how many, if any, relate to littering.
"Hunters have an obligation to minimise impacts on the environment and to appropriately dispose of waste and litter," a GMA spokesperson said.
"The GMA and authorised officers from partner agencies investigate alleged littering offences in wetlands and other public lands where game hunting occurs.
"More than 100 authorised officers will be deployed on compliance and enforcement operations across regional Victoria."
Duck season begins tomorrow and runs until June 8 in Victoria.
Low-level littering offences carry fines of up to $4,070.20 under the Environment Protection Act 2017. (Supplied: David Mould)
Continuing the clean-up
Mr Mould said he and his fellow volunteers had done four clean-up trips on game reserves across western Victoria but the work did not stop there.
As well as helping rescue ducks, he said they would be on litter patrol.
"Throughout the [2026 duck hunting] season we'll be picking up rubbish as we go, and then once the season's over we'll be back at it again," he said.
"No-one's supposed to leave litter anywhere, particularly out in the wetlands where it's inaccessible, so it just sinks and becomes part of the environment forever."