Senate inquiry calls for aerial shooting of feral horses in wake of catastrophic impacts

A Senate committee examining the impacts and management of feral horse populations in the Australian alps has called for aerial culling to be allowed in NSW.

A report handed down on Friday made 14 recommendations, including that the Minister for Environment and Water list habitat degradation, competition and disease transmission by feral horses as a Key Threatening Process under the Environment Biodiversity and Conservation Act 1999.

It recommended that the federal government commission urgent monitoring and work with state and territory governments to implement recovery plans to better protect critically endangered species that were impacted by wild horse populations.

The committee also called on the NSW government to update the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow the use of aerial shooting as a feral horse control method if deemed appropriate under strict safety, scientific and humane practices.

The inquiry was referred to the committee of environment and communications in February this year, with an aim to identify the best approach to reduce feral horse numbers.

Catastrophic impact

ACT Independent Senator David Pocock, who instigated the inquiry with the support of the government and the Greens, said the final report documented compelling evidence of the catastrophic impacts feral horses were having on threatened species, waterways and ecosystems.

“Feral horses are threatening 12 incredible Australian plants and animals, and the quality of our water, which we simply can’t afford with 30 per of water in the Murray-Darling Basin coming from the region,” Senator Pocock said.

The Senate committee also recommended that the Murray-Darling Basin Authority undertake work to measure, monitor and record the quality of basin water resources in and flowing from the Australian Alps, with particular reference to the impact of feral horses.

The Australian Alps largely refers to alpine regions in the ACT, NSW and Victoria.

The report was welcomed by Indigenous river guide Richard Swain, who is an ambassador for the Invasive Species Council.

He called the “senseless destruction of Country” by feral horses in recent decades “a national disgrace”.

“The springs where the Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers are born have been desecrated by hard hooves,” Mr Swain said. “These iconic rivers don’t get one millimetre out of the ground before they’re trampled.”

His view is not shared by Jan Carter, President and Founder of Save The Brumbies Inc.

She disputed the latest count of horses in Kosciuszko National Park and questioned the scientific evidence of the damage caused by wild horses to alpine river systems.

While she did not dispute that there are too many wild horses in the alps, she called for fertility control and rehoming to be given more serious consideration, and remains opposed to aerial shooting.

“The brumbies are our heritage, they are part of our culture,” Ms Carter said. 

In response to the report, Commonwealth Minister for the Environment and Water, Tanya Plibersek, said she would work carefully through the recommendations.

“I want feral horses removed from the Australian Alps,” she said.

“They damage our fragile alpine and sub-alpine ecosystem.”

NSW Minister for the Environment Penny Sharpe said that the findings of the inquiry “confirm the concerns NSW has about the impact of wild horses on the Kosciuszko National Park”.

Brumby populations

The latest survey for Victoria conducted in 2021 estimates 2,708 wild horses remain in the Alpine National Park, which includes the Bogong High Plains and Eastern Alps.

This compares to a spring 2022 survey conducted in Kosciuszko National Park in NSW which estimates more than 18,800 wild horses remain.

There are no wild horses recorded in the ACT’s Namadgi National Park.

The inquiry received nearly 800 submissions from the public, and the committee conducted two public hearings in Canberra in August and September. 

A report was initially due by June 9, but was granted an extension to September 29, then October 6, and again to October 13.

The inquiry is separate to a NSW government proposal to reintroduce aerial shooting as a control method in Kosciuszko National Park. 

Public feedback on the NSW proposal closed on September 11, and is still being considered by the NSW Environment Department before a final decision is made.