6 October 2023

Rotting horse carcasses greet long weekend visitors to Kosciuszko National Park

| Edwina Mason
Join the conversation
11
Dead horses in Kosciuszko National Park

The scene that greeted Ian and Michelle Brown when they arrived in Kosciuszko National Park on Saturday. Photo: Snowy Brumby Photography Adventures/Facebook.

UPDATE 6 October 12:00 pm: The Senate Environment and Communications References Committee this week requested a further extension until 13 October 2023 to allow it to consider the evidence received and to conclude its deliberations.

The summer tourism season opened in Kosciuszko National Park this long weekend with the grim discovery of around 150 rotting horse carcasses in popular tourist spots.

Hikers encountered scores of carcasses scattered alongside walking tracks, while other campers simply left the park because the sight and smell of the dead animals was too traumatic.

The wild horses, or brumbies, have been shot in recent months in NSW National Parks and Wildlife (NPWS) culling operations that have resulted in an open graveyard of horse bones, skin, decaying flesh and entrails in Tantangara, Blue Waterholes and near Pockets Saddle campground, three extremely popular tourist spots on the High Plains area.

Locals, Ian and Michelle Brown, said they counted at least 130 dead wild horses near Currango and Blue Waterholes while trekking on Saturday with Ian discovering a further 20 dead horses on another trek near Pockets Saddle on Sunday.

The Browns have hiked throughout the park weekly for years, documenting the activities and movements of the individual wild horse mobs through their Snowy Brumby Photography Adventures Facebook page.

Since State Government-mandated culling operations to reduce the population of horses began in July 2020, the couple have borne witness to hundreds of horses being trapped and transported out of the park for rehoming or slaughter.

According to the NPWS, ground shooting began in the park in February 2022, but Ian and Michelle’s discovery of 67 carcasses strewn across Snowy Plain, west of Lake Eucumbene, in May 2023 threw the culling operations into the public spotlight.

Saturday’s find was a whole new level for them.

“We won’t easily forget it,” Ian said.

“There were dead horses everywhere, we topped one hill and could see carcasses laying across a plain, it was too far for us to walk, so we did a rough count but so we know there’s more out there.”

bodies of dead horses in kosciuszko national park

Ian Brown said the carcasses could be seen for miles. Photo: Snowy Brumby Photography Adventures/Facebook.

Mr Brown said if the scene was abhorrent to them, he couldn’t imagine how visitors to the area would be impacted.

The 650 kilometre Australian Alps Walking Trail (AAWT) – which winds through the high country of Victoria, NSW and the ACT – ran straight through one section of the park where 96 brumbies had been shot.

“We encountered two groups of hikers and gave them the heads-up, one group was certainly undecided about whether they wanted to continue,” he said.

Because these ground shootings have taken place in targeted retention management areas where, under the Wild Horse Heritage Act [2018], safeguards were put in place around mobs with strong heritage links to the park, there are now concerns these historic mobs might be obliterated.

READ ALSO Community outrage at wild horse carcasses in KNP met with silence

Under the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan (KNP WHHMP), the retention areas, where these mobs reside, will form the 32 per cent of the park where the target population of 3000 horses will be allowed to remain.

“If they’re shooting without discrimination, how do we know the Currango and Long Plain roans and bays have not been wiped out” Ian asked.

Heritage mobs with pioneering and pastoral links include Kiandra Greys, McDonald Silver and Taffy horses, Currango and Long Plain roans and bays, Cascade horses and Byadbo and Pilot horses

It was rumoured NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe MLC was planning to amend the KNP WHHMP to remove retention areas and has the entire population of wild horses from border to border in her sights for removal. This has been denied by her office.

But the minister is on the brink of making a determination on an amendment to the KNP WHHMP to allow the NPWS to start aerial culling to ramp up efforts to reduce the impact of the wild horses on the fragile alpine and sub-alpine environment.

A lone horse stands on a plain next to a deceased horse

The Browns observed surviving horses lingering near the dead mobs. Photo: Snowy Brumby Photography Adventures/Facebook.

Minister Sharpe has been under pressure from conservation groups since a November 2002 survey showed the estimated wild horse population of 18,814 was up 31 per cent on the 14,000 estimate in 2020.

The Invasive Species Council said the numbers cast doubt on the NSW Government’s ability to significantly reduce the brumby population by 2027.

Submissions closed on 11 September and are currently being collated and considered.

The NPWS said evidence had already been given to the Commonwealth Senate Inquiry confirming 2201 horses were removed from Kosciuszko National Park between February 2022 and August 2023.

The report on that inquiry is due to be released on 6 October.

NSW Nationals Senator Bronnie Taylor said she was horrified when she saw the images of the dead horses.

“I just don’t understand what the agenda is here – I think the bureaucrats are fooling the ministers,” she said.

“I think an independent light needs to be shone on what NPWS are doing because there’s a plan that everyone in parliament agreed on that went through legislation and now we are hearing about horses being shot near walking tracks – which is indefensible – the park is meant to be for everyone,” Mrs Taylor said.

She’s looking forward to the upcoming NSW Upper House inquiry into the proposed aerial shooting of brumbies in KNP, which would also offer transparency around count methodology.

READ ALSO Minister sticks to guns in rejecting claims brumbies were inhumanely shot during Snowy Plain cull

The NPWS say they’re under a legal obligation to reduce the population of horses in Kosciuszko National Park to 3000 by mid-2027 and, additionally, were undertaking the largest feral animal control program in its history, involving ground and aerial baiting, trapping and shooting of deer, goats, pigs, rabbits, wild dogs, foxes and feral cats.

“This is currently underway,” a spokesperson said, “and rigorous protocols are in place to ensure public safety.

“The NSW NPWS has extensive experience over many years in delivering safe shooting operations.”

Leaving carcasses to decompose in place was standard practise for feral animal control on public and private land and was consistent with the longstanding practice with deer and pig control in the park, a spokesperson added.

“Carcasses are not left in major waterways or within 400 metres of busy visitor areas such as campgrounds, except in exceptional circumstances.”

Original Article published by Edwina Mason on About Regional.

Join the conversation

11
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest
Catherine Ehlefeldt6:41 pm 06 Jan 24

It was sickening & disgusting to see the images of so many horses that were shot & left to die an agonising death. This barbaric act of cruelty must be stopped. Those responsible should hang their heads in shame, you are the lowest form of life to carry out such an abhorrent act

bev hutchinson8:20 am 05 Oct 23

Let’s remember how important horses are and have been over the last couple of hundred years here in Australia. Horses and the mountains were managed extremely well by rural farmers until the early 70s by running stock and keeping the fuel load down. So many fringe city people dump their unwanted horses and they multiply. Seems terrible to me that we resolve to shooting rather than bringing back management that worked. Stocking the hills was also terrific for drought relief and no matter what the hills aren’t looked after well under this “lock it up” neglectful regime run by people that have no idea.

Probably a different obviously unbiassed reporter would be a good change Riotact to present the actual science. For over 45 yrs I have fished the long plain, I have seen the Bidgee go from crystal clear to turbid and undrinkable, the real change over years is feral horses from never see one to often hundreds muddying up the feeder streams. Feral animals have no place in the ecosystem here.

greensareliars1:18 pm 04 Oct 23

If the means exist to cut the number of feral horses in Kosciusko NP to a number where we can’t find the damge they do any more then we should do it. If this means some people are confronted with the sight of some dead ferals then so be it.

Andrew Purdam9:57 am 04 Oct 23

We walked through Long Plains and Blue Waterholes in September. The size of the mobs of horses was alarming in such a fragile environment. Horse **** and trampled vegetation everywhere. On trails, in streams. Even right down on Cave Creek, the jewel of the area. And right up towards Leura Gap and Oldfield’s Hut. The environmental destruction is staggering. We did see several carcasses. Their numbers are way too high but I don’t see any easy solution. If they stay, KNP is stuffed.

My partner and I did a great walk over the long weekend at the very southern end of KNP. We found a beautiful meadow adjacent to Jack Riley Huts site on the bank of the wild Upper Murray. Except that it has been totally trashed by the 18 brumbies who have moved in. Watercourses turned to sludge, horse dung in vast piles everywhere. They are beeding like flies. Barilaro was a fool. They have got to go. Now.

Stephen Saunders3:46 pm 03 Oct 23

Horse manure, as it were. Under the protection of Barilaro’s corrupt legislation, the feral horse side has pretty much destroyed KNP, and still they’re not happy.

Don’t want dead horses upsetting you? Push for them to be eradicated properly, instead of the present designed-to-fail half measures.

Edwina, we know you’re very passionate about horses, hence your bi-monthly article, however, please don’t forget your journalist ethics by only discussing one side of the coin. These are invasive species causing damage to an area with many endangered and threatened species of both flora and fauna. To protect the environment and promote diverse and resilient ecosystems these horses cannot remain in such great quantities. I am a vegetarian myself and hate to see animals suffer, but this is the greater of two evils.

These are not “wild” horses – they are feral horses and have no place in this country. If people like those quoted in the article hadn’t pushed the NSW government to either ignore this problem or tiptoe around it then the numbers of horses would not be so high, and it might have been possible to remove at least some of the carcasses. However, to do so would involve heavy machinery and large pits which would further damage this fragile environment. Better to put up with the smell for a short period and let all those nutrients return to the soil.

David Rowlands1:40 pm 03 Oct 23

This article is self-interested propaganda. Dead horses don’t destroy the alpine environment.

This article is written in a very emotive fashion to try & get support for the pro horse lobby.

What’s much worse is tramping through pristine high country & finding mobs of horses churning the streams & swamps into mud & horse manure everywhere.

Horses belong in the alps as much as cane toads do.

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.