Gear up this September for the Annual Weipa Pig Hunt hosted by Albatross Bay Resort.
An event you won’t want to miss, the Annual Weipa Pig Hunt is coming to you at Albatross Bay Resort on Friday 16 September 2022.
The turnout last year was amazing, with higher anticipation for 2022.
Last year, the two biggest boars were caught in the space of seconds. Both Scott Coleman and Tyson Locke travelled down a fair way to Pormpuraaw in search of their prey and managed to get lucky with the two biggest catches of the event.
Their success saw a 45 minute nap at Musgrave Roadhouse while on the way back to Weipa for the weigh-in. According to Scott and Tyson, their team of five dogs copped some injuries from a stubborn boar but are in luck and set to recuperate.
Forming the team of five dogs was two older ones and three pups. When the biggest boar was being caught, the pups were nowhere to be seen – only to find them a few hundred metres away catching another which turned out to be the second biggest boar.
As usual, the Annual Weipa Pig Hunt draws in big crowds curious to find out the weigh-in results as well as to attend the presentation at the Carpentaria Gold Club on Saturday night.
In 2021, a total of 244 pigs were caught by 48 teams with police reporting no incidents. The committee praised yet another successful event with thanks to sponsors and attendees.
In preparation for this year, here are the results from last year’s Weipa Pig Hunt.
Biggest overall pig: 89.95kg boar caught by the Cape York Road Runners (Scott Coleman and Tyson Locke).
Runner-up biggest boar: 88.35kg caught by the Cape York Road Runners.
Biggest sow: 88kg caught by Up The Crackle (Dom Cigrovski, Scott and Kaidyn Williams).
Runner-up biggest sow: 75.08kg caught by Chop Chasers (Kiana and Ryder Street).
Biggest tusks: 78.5mm caught by Stump Jumpers (Rob Luxford, Izzy McCann and Grayson McCann).
Runner-up biggest tusks: 76.6mm caught by Watson Wanderers (Chris Burns, Zac Phillips and Sarah Hickson).
Most pigs: 20 caught by Up and Swine (Anthony Hoods, Rodney and Kaden Brett).
Runner-up most pigs: 18 caught by Good As Gold (Steve, Gary, Rhiannon and Kazzie Head).
Mystery (30-49kg): Young Bloods (Ben Fry, Dev and Corey Williams).
Mystery (50-59kg): Good As Gold.
Mystery (60-69kg): Up The Crackle.
Mystery (70-79kg): Chop Chasers.
Mystery (80kg+): Cape York Road Runners.
The event is hosted by the Albatross Bay Resort which is renowned for being a local HubSpot nestled in Weipa by the waterfront. Featuring comfortable accommodation and unbeatable food that makes the region proud, a visit to the Albatross Bay Resort is a must when in Weipa.
The history of pig hunting in Australia
Feral pigs are descendants of various domestic pig breeds and have been around across Australia since early European settlement.populations were initially concentrated near settlement areas but have since spread across 45% of the mainland with some occurrences in offshore islands.
The feral pig is considered an environmental pest due to their high adaptability, high reproductive rate, selective feeding, and destructive behaviour of trampling and rooting underground parts of plants and invertebrates. They also compete with native wildlife for food, water, shelter and prey on various wildlife species and their eggs. They are also known to prey on insects, amphibians, earthworms, reptiles, ground-nesting birds, small mammals, turtles, and small mammals.
Feral pigs are listed as a key threatening process to protected species conservation and act as carriers to various serious endemic and exotics diseases that have the potential to devastate commercial pig operations, animal and human welfare as well. Hunting them to bring down numbers is encouraged which is all the more reason to join in the Annual 2022 Weipa Pig Hunt and help the conservation effort.
