Feral deer are causing havoc for motorists, with Helensburgh being a crash hotspot, according to figures released by the Invasive Species Council.
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Between 2005-17, there have been 21 collisions between cars and feral deer at Helensburgh – 18 of which were considered serious.
Of those accidents, nine of them occurred on the F6 Freeway, where the speed limit is 110km/h.
The next worst Illawarra suburb for deer collisions is Otford, with eleven.
It’s not just an issue for the northern suburbs near heavy bushland, deer are now encroaching on suburbia.
Mt Ousley is third on the list with seven crashes, while Figtree is fourth with five.
Rounding out the top five is Stanwell Park with three deer-car collisions.
Across the Illawarra, there have been 107 accidents involving cars and deer.
In 28 of those accidents, a driver or passenger was injured, with one fatality – at Kembla Grange in 2012.
Invasive Species Council CEO Andrew Cox claimed the NSW government needed to remove the protected game status on feral deer.
“It’s time to cut the red tape designed to protect feral deer for hunters that is preventing farmers and land managers from controlling feral deer numbers,” Mr Cox said.
“Deer are a destructive pest that destroy bushland, farmland and put people’s lives at risk.
A spokesman for the NSW Department of Primary Industries said deer were listed as a “priority pest species” in the pest animal plan that covers the Illawarra.
He said the government adopted an approach that treated deer as a regulated game species for the purpose of recreational hunting but exempted landowners, members of their household and their employees from those regulations.
“Effectively this allows any landowner to manage deer as they see fit on their own land,” the spokesman said.
With drought conditions throughout NSW, the spokesman said the risk of collisions with deer was heightened as the animal went in search of water.
A Wollongong City Council spokeswoman said it worked with state government agencies and landholders to develop a deer control plan using professional pest contractors, which launched in May 2011.
“We have contributed up to 50 per cent this program’s funding, with Cumberland Livestock Health and Pest Authority, (now known as the South East Local Land Services) administering the program over the past seven years,” the spokeswoman said.
“In this time, the program has culled more than 2800 deer.
“However, key to this program’s success is the significant level of work we have done working with South East Local Land Services to support local rural residents in providing advice on how to control deer on their property, trials of humane enclosures for trapping deer, trials of deterrents and research into deer abundance, distribution and impacts.”