UNDER THE GUN: Game Council employee Greg McFarland.
SUSPENDED NSW Game Council employee Greg McFarland has told the Central Western Daily he wants to fully co-operate with a NSW government internal inquiry into an alleged illegal hunting incident.
Mr McFarland and a colleague Andy Mallen were both stood down late last month following allegations they were hunting on a property south of Cobar without permission.
On January 25 Mr Mallen, who is head of firearms training and law enforcement with the Game Council, was reinstated after investigations revealed he was nowhere near the scene of the alleged incident.
Mr McFarland, who is Game Council NSW communications and marketing manager, said the preliminary fact-finding investigation has been ordered by Mark Paterson, director general of the NSW Department of Trade and Investment.
Mr McFarland said he is not able to comment on details surrounding the confidential investigation.
“But I have been fully informed about the investigation process and feel I am being fairly treated,” he said.
Primary Industries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson made the decision to stand Mr McFarland and Mr Mallen down and referred the investigation to police.
Mr McFarland is facing claims he was one of two men driving in a Game Council owned vehicle which strayed onto Karwarn sheep and cattle station, 110 kilometres south of Cobar in pursuit of a goat and its “trophy horns”.
The owner of Karwarn, Diane Noble reported the alleged incident to police, passing on photographs of a dead goat allegedly shot during the incident.
Ms Noble said she was alerted to the unauthorised shooters on her land by a group of Victorian hunters who had paid to hunt on her property.
The Game Council claims the allegations are to discredit the organisation which has been at the forefront of a move to open up national parks to recreational shooters.