HUNTERS and graziers are fighting over a deserted island off the Gippsland coast.
The hunters want access to Australia's single biggest population of hog deer.Cattle have been famously walked and swum across to Snake Island at low tide for more than a century of grazing.
"It's not safe to have stock, the people who care for them and everyone else who visits this island in the same place as people wandering around with guns,'' Snake Island Cattleman's Association president Peter Madilia said.
The State Government will likely decide by Christmas on a push for a two-year hunting trial.
"No-one is in any danger of being shot, our members hunt deer all over Australia and no-one is in danger,'' Australian Deer Association's Victorian president Steve Garlick said.
The introduced Hog Deer are mainly only found in Victoria and a quarter of them live on Snake Island, a 3500ha sand and scrub island sheltered by Wilsons Promotory.
Numbers of the small deer are said to range from 500 to 1000 and the hunters are proposing a lottery system to select 24 hunters who would be able to take two deer in any one year, a maximum of 48 per year.
In a long tradition, cattle have been walked at low tide across from Port Welshpool to the island for the sparse grazing - about 500 cattle in winter and 200 cattle in summer.
As well the island is popular with bushwalkers, kayakers and adventurous anglers.
Mr Madilia said the deer were in controllable numbers and he suggested there were other mainland locations more suitable for hunting Hog Deer.
"They've been trying to get on to the island for many years . . . safety is our primary concern,'' he said.
"There have been no studies done, they just want to go and shoot and ask questions later.''
The graziers also point to nearby Sunday Island, which allows shooting of Hog Deer, but it is a privately owned shooting reserve owned by co-operative with 200 members.
Submissions to the Government on the hunting proposal close in a week.
There are 23,000 registered deer hunters in Victoria and less than 100 Gippsland farmers traditionally "rest'' their properties by applying for grazing access to Snake Island.
