Shooting from helicopters, passive trapping and "free range ground shooting" will be the three key methods used to prevent feral horses roaming across the NSW border into the ACT's fire-ravaged Namadgi National Park.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The ACT government's new feral horse management plan has re-affirmed the territory's hardline stance against the incursion of the wild horses, which now number in their tens of thousands across the Australian Alps, from below the Victorian border to the northern reaches of the Kosciuszko National Park.
While the ACT has always taken a no-compromise approach, the new plan sets out the prevention in detail, citing that the choice of methods will depend on prevailing factors such as the size and age structure of the mobs, accessibility to the affected areas, the terrain and the season.
The document puts the feral horse population across the Australian Alps national parks network at 11.5 animals per square kilometre, although the numbers quoted are at least two years out of date.
Data obtained under freedom of information from 2019 put the size of various mobs roaming just the northern section of the Kosciuszko range alone at 3110 - up 45 per cent from an aerial count two years previously.
It's now coming into foaling season so the numbers are set to grow even further over summer.
The culling of wild horses, which have been roaming the parks since the 1830s, has always been a contentious issue which has bitterly divided those sworn to protect the brumbies made famous by The Man From Snowy River, and those equally passionate about protecting the delicate native Alpine habitats where they forage for food.
Right through the high country, the debate has become fiercely political and increasingly passionate as the more humane method of trapping and re-homing such a large quantity of horses is hugely problematic.
However, a tipping point came after the 2019-20 summer bushfires and a July hearing in the NSW Land and Environment Court where those seeking to protect the brumbies had sought an injunction against their removal.
The court ruled against the protectors, noting that the the park has sustained such extensive damage that the horse numbers would impact "the environmental recovery of the physical landscape".
ACT-funded modelling has revealed that without population control measures,"feral horses would likely move into substantial areas of [the park]".
"Recent control measures have been insufficient to deal with feral horse populations in NSW and, with current policy uncertainty, the threat of horses migrating into Namadgi is extreme and ongoing," the plan's threat assessment stated.
The threat to flora and fauna in the Namadgi, already struggling after the bushfires, is at the core of the concern.
READ MORE:
The Australian Brumby Alliance, formed in 2008, has been lobbying for state and federal governments to secure long-term land allocations for brumbies to continue living and evolving "in their wild state".
Meetings of scientific and community advisory panels appointed by NSW Energy and Environment Minister Matt Kean have been restricted by the coronavirus to the point where a NSW management plan for the wild horses now appears unlikely until mid-2021.