A week out from Huntfest, Tim, founder of Venture, headed to a property that holds wild red deer and a solid population of rusa stags. The job was practical. Huntfest needed venison. The animals needed to be the right size for a kitchen, not wall-hangers for their own sake.

In the late afternoon, a lone red deer was spotted out on the flat. Tim settled in and made the shot. The recovery came next. He found the deer down the slope and dragged him up. A perfect little spiker. Good eating size for Huntfest.

There is no bond like the one between hunting fathers and sons. Liam was keen to shoot his first rusa stag, and this property had the numbers to make that happen if they put the kilometres in. They went for a drive to read the country, then got out and walked.

The father-son duo set out through dry grass and scrub, working the wind and staying patient. The property's rusa stag population made the search promising, but the animals were not going to hand themselves over. The hunt made them earn it.

Taking an animal is only the beginning. To truly respect what you have taken, knowing how to look after the cape, break down the carcass, and make the most of the meat is just as much a part of hunting as pulling the trigger. Every step after the shot matters, and doing it well is how you honour the animal.

Both deer were field dressed on the property, carefully and without shortcuts. Cut the weasand out. Try not to puncture anything. You do not have to force the knife into the gut. Then the animals hung in a cold room for a few days before the festival so the meat would be in top condition for the kitchen and the demonstrations. Nothing from either deer was going to be wasted.

Camp that night was firelight, a young hunter in full camo, and the quiet that settles in once the work is done.

Back at Huntfest, the same animals became the teaching aid. First up was Marcus McCullawitz from Down Under Taxidermy, in front of a packed gallery under the marquee.

"I'm Marcus McCullawitz from Down Under Taxidermy. We're here showing people how to skin a deer for taxidermy. Hopefully this will give some of the hunters a bit of an insight into what they can do in the field and don't have to rely on a taxidermist and pay the extra money, and that they can sort of save a skin in the field a lot easier than they thought."

It is a lot to take in when you see a proper caping done for the first time. Marcus walked through every cut and explained the common mistakes hunters make in the field. By the time he wrapped up, the crowd was leaving with a clearer picture of how to save a trophy-class cape themselves, without having to hand the work off.

The butchering demonstration was delivered by Lawson from Nature's Perks, a hunter and butcher by trade who runs an education business centred on ethical hunting and full animal utilisation.

"We're an education business. It's what we focus on mainly is the education side of things. And we go on a meat hunt or a stag hunt and then we talk about how to hunt ethically. On top of that, we show you how to butcher, how to process, how to cape. I'm a butcher by trade."

Following Marcus's caping demo, Lawson took over with the carcass and processed the whole rusa stag on the bench. He showed every cut and explained how each one would be used in the kitchen. Shoulder, backstrap, silverside, trim. The whole animal accounted for, nothing left on the bones that did not need to be.

Between presentations, the trim from both deer went through a Carnivore Collective mincer on the festival floor. The crowd watched fresh wild venison mince fall into the bin, ready to be turned into sausages. None of this deer was being wasted.

The final chapter of the paddock-to-plate story belonged to James Viles, CEO and founder of Offgrid Provisions and an acclaimed chef with a deep commitment to wild and locally grown food. James took the venison from the butcher's block through the kitchen and onto plates shared with the Huntfest crowd.

"My name is James Viles and I'm the CEO and founder of Offgrid. We've been doing some recipes and lots of good cook-ups. We did a dumpling with a chilli crunch, and the dumpling had some wild venison through it. Local is best, wild is better. And we are big advocates for local food."

All of Offgrid is made locally with local farmers and growers, and the business is a massive advocate for wild harvested ingredients, meats, and plants. The wild venison dumplings with chilli crunch were a genuine hit with the crowd. For many people at Huntfest, it was the first time they had eaten wild game prepared by a professional chef.

Over the course of the weekend, those two deer went from the paddock to the butcher's block, through the mincer, into the kitchen, and onto plates shared by the community.