Australia Banteng Hunting On and Off Cobourg Peninsula

If banteng is on your list of species to hunt, you'll want to know about recent developments in Australia's Cobourg National Park and an opportunity to hunt just outside the park. Known for their ornery dispositions, banteng are one of those species that intrigue dangerous game hunters. Like water buffalo, banteng are a bovine originally from Asia. Unlike water buffalo, banteng are considered endangered in their native range and cannot be hunted except in Australia. In 1849, 20 banteng were brought from Bali, Indonesia, to the Cobourg Peninsula in the Northern Territory by European settlers. When the settlement was abandoned, the banteng were left to run wild. Today, a sustainable population thrives on Cobourg, which is now Garig Gunak Barlu National Park. Hunting is allowed by concession permit only. For some years, only two operators conducted hunts here, Peter Davidson of Arnhemland Hunting Safaris and Brenton Hurt of Territory Buffalo Safaris. We have numerous reports on both in our database. Their permits expired in 2010 and it has taken more than a year to sort out who is getting new permits. (More on that in a moment.) In the meantime, banteng hunting in the park has been unavailable. One option left to hunters was to hunt banteng with Kevin Gleeson of Mary River Station (www.mrwrsafaris.com), which offers estate-type and free-range hunting. But one other operator has been able to offer completely free-range banteng hunts just outside of the park, where banteng have expanded. His name is Karl Goodhand of Goodhand Outback Experience (011-61-409-024-989; www.goodhandoutbackexperience.com.au).We first learned of this operator through subscribers Robert and Arlene Hanson (Report ID 8252), who hunted with three different outfitters this past May and June. Hunting with Goodhand, the Hansons took two SCI Silver Medal banteng in just two days of hunting, putting Robert at the Diamond Level in SCI's Animals of the South Pacific Inner Circle, while Arlene achieved Gold Level."We hunted just southeast of the Coburg Peninsula, which is the only location for hunting banteng. Many of the outfitters who traditionally operated on the peninsula inside the national park, were shut out because of permitting issues with the Aborigines. We were fortunate........(continued)