SSAA NSW

Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (NSW) Inc. 5 HuntFest 2014 At HuntFest this year we had 57 exhibitors, 36 inside and 23 outside, and even though we had so many businesses, all reported great sales! The total attendance count was 2,316, not including children 16 and under who were given free entry. At 1:30 on the Saturday afternoon we had over 1,300 through the gate which had beaten last year's total attendance for the 2 day event! One of our biggest attractions this year was the try archery stand run by the Eurobodalla Archery Club, which saw well over 400 children have a few shots of a bow at 3D targets. It was a huge hit with all the families that attended and on more than one occasion the young ones showed up their mums and dads! The other big attraction was the fi rearms hunting simulator run by the Australian Deer Association. Quite a few hunters were surprised at how much lead was needed on a running target; overall the simulator was a huge hit with everyone that gave it a go. The South Coast Hunters Club hosted a game BBQ. They cooked around 180kgs of venison snags and hamburgers and 200kgs of goat hamburgers over the 2 days! As for our amazing photography and video competition, we had a record number of entries in all categories this year with Gopro's and Video cameras given out as prizes. We also had over 400 children enter the kids colouring competition over the 2 day event! Senior Hunting Winner David Jansen Junior Hunting Winner David Garrad Senior Wildlife Winner John Dunn Congratulations to our Photographic winners: Junior Scenery: David Garrad Junior Wildlife: Ben Fish Senior Scenery: Paul Fish Senior Wildlife: John Dunn Senior Female: Zoe Field Senior Hunting: David Jansen In addition an exit survey was conducted over the 2 day event and preliminary fi gures indicate the event has injected over half a million dollars into the local areas. Since the Greens and Labour Party forced marine parks onto the Eurobodalla shire the area has had a 38% down turn in tourism. Motels and shops are closing so HuntFest was a huge boost to the local economy. Most of the motels in Narooma were booked out over the June long weekend due to HuntFest. O'Brian's hotel informed us it was the best June long weekend on record and all due to HuntFest. Narooma was awash with HuntFest T-shirts everywhere you looked. Thank you to everyone who came to support the show and hopefully, like us, you are looking forward to an even bigger event next year. Don Field SCHC

• Cover