Wild deer pie anyone? Hunters gather to eat the problemStephanie GardinerAAPSun, 5 October 2025 5:31AM
Chef Jo Barrett’s pies have a buttery crust filled with tender meat marinated in rich flavours such as red wine, rosemary or pepper.
“The pie is an Australian icon,” she says, standing in her Beechworth kitchen in Victoria’s northeast after a morning of baking.
What sets the award-winning chef’s pies, sausage rolls and dumplings apart is their fillings: wild venison, boar, goat and even Flinders Island wallaby.
Ms Barrett, The Age newspaper’s Good Food Guide 2024 chef of the year, shut her lauded Lorne restaurant Little Picket to focus on making gourmet pies with meat that is often overlooked or left to waste.
Wildpie uses cuts from species being culled to manage their overpopulation, geared towards Australian diners’ desire to eat sustainably and know where their food comes from.
Much of Australia’s management of pest populations is to kill and leave, which Ms Barrett identified as an opportunity to work with specialty shooters and butchers.
“We’re sitting on an untapped resource. We’re showing there is an alternative and we can use these animals,” she said.
Wildpie’s wild boar dim sims feature on menus at NSW and Victorian hotels, served with garnishes such as beetroot relish, spring onion and black vinegar, while the wild venison and goat curry pies are also proving pub favourites.
Venison is a particular focus for many Australian chefs experimenting with game meat, with up to two million feral deer spread across the country’s native and agricultural landscape.
Deer cost producers and the community an estimated $91 million every year as they destroy native plants and crops, spread weeds and damage the soil, according to the federal government’s feral deer action plan.
The funding to manage pest populations could also be spent on processing facilities that get nutrient-dense food directly to consumers, Ms Barrett said.
“We have a product where we harvest from nature all the way to a pie that you can stick in your oven.
“There’s traceability. I don’t know too many other places that are able to do that.”
Hunting for food, as opposed to trophy killing, will be a focus of the Wild Deer Expo at Lardner, in west Gippsland, from October 11.
The expo will feature demonstrations hosted by Ms Barrett – also an avid hunter and fly-fisher – alongside other chefs and sustainability advocates, including contestants from the survival reality series Alone Australia.
Expo owner and hunter Shaun Lynch said most hunters had a respect for nature and were interested in conservation.
“There is a real push towards if you shoot something, you should be willing and able to process that and turn it into food,” he said.
“I’m seeing a huge trend towards people … starting to get an interest in this resource, to utilise the game meat.”
While Ms Barrett has perfected game meat pies, Mr Lynch said venison schnitzel was also a winner.
“I do a venison back strap, turn it into a schnitzel and it’s extremely palatable,” he said.
“Most people wouldn’t even know that it wasn’t beef.”
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