A hunter all his life, and president of the Australian Conservation Hunters, Mr Thomas knows his position will startle some and anger others. Hunting pest animals, especially spotted deer such as chital that look like Bambi, is an emotive issue at best.

However, Mr Thomas is a strong advocate for the economic, environmental and anti-cruelty benefits he believes could flow to this region from more licensed hunting.

“Licensed hunting could bring big money to the Bega Valley Shire, and reduce out-of-control numbers of some species,” Mr Thomas says.

“With the Bega Valley already receiving dollars from the states’ hunting community via the sales of camping and hunting equipment, fuel, food and accommodation, the prospects can only mean an increase in hunter dollars in the future.”

Licensed hunting is worth big bucks according to a report prepared for Victorian Minister for Agriculture, Peter Walsh and released in June 2014.

Minister Walsh launched Victoria’s Economic Impact of Hunting report at Winghee Swamp near Bendigo on the last day of the 2014 Victorian duck hunting season.

The report estimates hunting is worth $439 million to the Victorian economy.

“The Victorian Coalition Government supports a responsibly managed game hunting sector because we recognise, and this new data confirms, that game hunting and hunting of pest animals is significant within the state economy and it is important to regional communities,” Mr Walsh said.

“This is the most comprehensive survey ever of Victorian hunting and it reveals the activity had a total economic impact of $439 million in 2013 and supported almost 3,500 full time equivalent jobs directly and indirectly across Victoria.”

More recently the CSIRO released a survey that revealed there are more than 300,000 recreational hunters in Australia, who spend in excess of $1billion annually on hunting.

Closer to home, the Narooma Hunfest is said to have brought an estimated $900,000 to the town over the two-day camping, hunting, archery, and fishing focussed expo.

Narooma’s HuntFest has now applied to Eurobodalla Shire Council to change the conditions of its event licence to allow the sale of firearms and the operation of a mobile air rifle range next year.

President of the South Coast Hunters Club, Dan Field, said the sale of guns would help HuntFest grow.

“At the moment we've only got display and you can't even make arrangements to sell them at another time under the law,” Mr Field said.

“So it just means people could come and have a look at the new model firearms, take orders and that would be quite legal.

“It just means there will be a few more outfitters coming and the firearms dealers that do come, and we only had three last year, can sell their wares.”

The Eurobodalla Shire Council has put the amendment on exhibition for public comment until Wednesday, October 8.

Mr Field said he expected positive community feedback.

“When you get 2300 people attending an event that brings close to $900,000 into the shire you would hate to lose it.”

Back at Kiah, Clyde Thomas lists the added benefits that could come to

this region with more conservation hunting.

“Responsible hunting will do much to address the problem of out-of-control numbers of some game species.

“Some types of game or feral animal inhabit 95 per cent of NSW and Voluntary Conservation Hunting is an effective tool in managing these animals, giving them a dollar value as opposed to cost incurred by the NSW tax payer.

“Research indicates around 13 per cent of fox control actions in NSW are undertaken by shooters and 22 per cent of the feral pig population is culled by hunters.

“CSIRO figures estimate there are in excess of 20 million wild pigs in Australia today,” he said.

However, many locals, especially farmers, are more concerned about populations of pest deer, a concern acknowledged by Mr Thomas.

“We do have a proliferation of deer here at the moment. There are

Samba that have moved up here from Victoria, Javan-Rusa and fallow deer.

“The fellow deer and the Javan-Rusa are escapees; when the floods hit my place, I lost 30 head of deer.

“I’ve trapped most of them, and shot those that have come back onto my property.

“It is a problem at times for local farmers. When it’s a good year and there’s a fair bit of feed in the bush, deer will dissipate.”

Clyde is encouraging people with pest deer or other feral animal problems to re-think the problem.

“Astute farmers are now seeing deer on their properties as an asset and not a liability,” he says.

“I was recently approached by a farmer in the Bredbo area who is charging $50 per female deer and $150 per stag/buck along with a $20 per night camping fee for any licensed hunter in our club that wishes to hunt on his property, he also stated that a farming friend of his in the Jindabyne area was doing the same.

“I see no reason why this couldn’t happen here.

“I would like to see a commercial shooter come in here, and head shoot as many deer as he can, get the numbers down.

“Our shooters are run through shooting tests, they’re licensed, they make clean kills, the animals don’t suffer.”

Mr Thomas encourages anyone who wants assistance with feral and pest animals to get in contact with him.