One minute Dion O'Halloran and his two sons were sitting at the edge of the lake at McLaren Falls Park, the next they were running for cover from falling shotgun pellets.
Mr O'Halloran and his sons, aged 13 and 10, ventured to the park on Sunday morning for a spot of
trout fishing.
Shortly after they sat down, Mr O'Halloran heard the sound of a shotgun going off.
"I heard it and it seemed really close by so I looked up the lake, then I heard another loud boom," Mr O'Halloran said.
"It was really loud and they must have been really close ... then all of a sudden there were all these little splashes and the pellets were raining down into the lake."
Mr O'Halloran said the pellets were landing "very close" to where he and his sons were standing.
Their car was parked about a metre behind where the O'Halloran's were fishing and one of the shotgun pellets hit their vehicle making a "ping" sound.
Mr O'Halloran said he could not see where the duck shooters were but estimated they were a little further up the lake, a few hundred metres away.
"They were close to us and there were quite a few pellets," he said.
"It looked like rain in front of me, pelting down on the lake."
Although he did not have a problem with duck shooters - he has gone duck shooting himself before - Mr O'Halloran was concerned the hunters were being reckless.
"I have nothing against them, I just think where they were doing it was rather stupid. It's just idiotic to be shooting out over the public lake."
Mr O'Halloran said he wanted the hunters to be more careful in future, as McLaren Falls Park was a "well-used reserve" where people were often seen on kayaks or walking around the tracks.
"It's such a lovely spot and I hope this type of thing doesn't happen again".
