Australian Brumby Association launches legal action to stop Alpine National Park cull

The famed wild horses which roam Australia’s alps could be thrown a lifeline after legal action was launched in a bid to stop a proposed cull in a Victorian national park.

The Australian Brumby Association has launched legal action in a bid to stop a proposed cull of the wild horses by Parks Victoria.

The advocate group today filed an injunction to the Federal Court of Australia, seeking to stop the “trapping, mustering, shooting, removing, or otherwise interfering with brumbies” in the Alpine National Park.

It also wants to stop Parks Victoria from taking any action that might cause “significant depletion of any of the other populations of brumbies in the Alpine National Park”.

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HERITAGE STATUS TO SAVE WILD BRUMBIES

Parks Victoria has proposed a cull of wild brumbies.

The ABA says only 80 to 100 brumbies live in the Bogong High Plains area. Picture: Phil Skeggs

ABA president Jill Pickering said only 80 to 100 brumbies live in the Bogong High Plains area and any plans to reduce that number would be ruining part of a heritage-listed site.

“Our injunction application is a last ditch, costly move to retain the small heritage population that became established long before their homeland was declared a national park,” Ms Pickering said.

Ms Pickering said the injunction was filed on the basis that Parks Victoria had to legally gain permission to cull “in accordance with the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act)”.

“Parks Victoria does not have any approval and does not agree to seek approval, so the ABA will be bringing a federal-court case seeking an order requiring it to do so,” she said.

The wild horses have been blamed for the destruction of sensitive alpine environments. Picture: Stephen Cooper

A similar move to cull brumbies in New South Wales was overturned in May, with NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro saying the cultural significance of brumbies needed to be recognised.

Conservation groups urged the cull to go ahead, believing sensitive alpine environments and native species would continue to be destroyed by the wild horses.

The NSW Government originally wanted to reduce the number of horses in the Kosciuszko National Park by 90 per cent over 20 years.

A Parks Victoria spokeswoman said they could not comment because the matter was before the courts.