Weddin Landcare are taking a new approach to pest animal management by subsidising firearms training for women in the Weddin district.

“The idea for this project came about a few years ago when our treasurer, Phillip Diprose, heard of another Landcare group conducting a pest animal management project called Women with Guns and thought it sounded like a proactive approach,” Local Landcare Coordinator, Melanie Cooper said.

“On rural properties, it has traditionally been men who hold a gun licence but quite often there are opportunities for pest reduction being missed, with more and more women out there on tractors, doing stock work or carrying out farm maintenance, who may come across pest animals or sick livestock,” Melanie said.

The initiative is just one component of a larger program called ‘CATS – the control program’, being rolled out across the Central West region as part of the Landcare Enabling Program Phase 3 Innovations and Partnerships Grant Program, supported by the NSW Government.

It aims to assist local women to complete their longarm firearm licence requirements and gain confidence in the use of firearms in a safe, supportive environment to enhance local control efforts for feral animals such as cats, pigs, foxes, rabbits and deer.

“The program builds on the success RSPCA NSW, Weddin Shire Council and Weddin Landcare have had locally with the Keeping Cats Safe at Home project.

"The program includes further funds for desexing and microchipping of domestic cats, awareness and educational campaigns as well as the purchase of cat traps that can be hired by local Landcare members,” Melanie explained.

As the first step of the project, twelve local women completed their NSW Pre-Licence Qualification Course for Longarm Firearms in Grenfell on 20 and 21 July with Firearm Safety and Training Officer, John Gorman, who has been conducting firearms safety training in the local area since 1996 and worked with NSW Police to establish the Firearms Registry.

At the pre-licence qualification course John provided information, demonstrations and safety briefings to assist participants to complete their pre-licence test.

“John is an incredibly experienced trainer and we are so grateful for the assistance he has offered to help get the ball rolling to enable this group of women to obtain their firearms licences,” Melanie said.

Once these women have obtained their licences, they will then attend a four-hour intensive training session with Liz O'Grady from Ag and Pest Solutions in early 2027.

“Liz specifically trains small groups of women, with her course incorporating a comprehensive safety briefing, an easy-to-understand breakdown of a large range of firearms and ammunition, shooting techniques specific to women and plenty of target shooting,” Melanie said.

“It will be important for women to feel safe and unintimidated when learning about firearms and we’re very lucky to have secured Liz to provide that environment” Melanie added.

Initially offered to local Landcare members, this limited opportunity proved very popular, with Weddin Landcare not needing to advertise further as all spaces were claimed very quickly.

“The firearms training for women has been incredibly popular so we will see how the initial project goes and if it is a success, we will look to organise more training in the future,” Melanie indicated.

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