Former Barmah Forest officer opposes plans by Parks Victoria to shoot wild horses on the Murray
Mick Caldwell has nothing against shooting, in fact he’s a hunter himself. But the former cattle man is staunchly against the state governments plan to cull brumbies in Barmah Forest. This is why.
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Mick Caldwell has nothing against shooting, in fact he’s a hunter himself.
But the 68 year-old former cattleman and Barmah Forest officer for nearly 40 years, sees no reason to shoot the national park’s brumbies.
“I’m not opposed to culling when animal populations are overpopulated but that’s not the case here,” the Nathalia local says. “The brumbies aren’t doing any damage.”
He disagrees vehemently with Parks Victoria’s estimate of between 600 and 800 wild horses in the 60,000 hectare Barmah red gum forest; insisting there is more like 150.
And with the State Government’s plans to cull them.
When the Sunday Herald Sun visited the forest this month it saw about 25 horses and foals, in good condition.
Having caught, tamed, broken and bred from a Barmah brumby himself, Mick says he feels an affinity with the wild horses, “which are a breed of their own”.
The federal government’s deliberate, routine flooding of the Barmah Forest “does far more damage to the environment than the brumbies ever will”, he insists.
Forcing huge volumes of water down the Murray River and through the Barmah Choke — and planned environmental flooding — is causing serious erosion to the river banks, pools of stagnant, toxic water to form, indigenous Moira grass to scald and die on hot days and red gums to regenerate in such numbers, and so close together, they remain spindly sticks and “come to nothing”, Mick says.
Parks Victoria regional director Daniel McLaughlin did not specifically answer questions relating to the planned brumby cull, responding instead with a general statement about the government’s plan to “determine management strategies to protect native species of birds, fishes, reptiles, frogs, native mammals and plant species found in the Barmah National Park”.
“Parks Victoria aims to better protect this important ecosystem and in particular the internationally significant Ramsar wetland areas,” Mr McLaughlin said about the 2019 to 2023 draft action plan.
The report states the steady reduction of Moira grass in the national park “has been exacerbated by the presence of introduced herbivores”.
“Reducing the total grazing, browsing and trampling pressure is required to complement the management of environmental water to achieve protection and recovery of this critical
component of the Barmah Forest Ramsar site,” it states. “Of all the introduced grazing species present, feral horses are currently considered the most destructive and their removal from the Barmah Forest is an immediate priority for action.”
The report says culling will be staged, with the long-term aim of the Government to remove all the horses from the park.
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“The target of reduction of feral horse numbers will primarily be delivered through two principal control methods, passive trapping and rehoming and ground shooting of free-ranging horses using professional shooters,” the report says. “Shooting operations will be overseen by expert equine veterinarians and strictly managed in terms of humane animal welfare and public safety standards.”
It says the wild horses — believed to have bred from escaped trotters — have been in Barmah for more than a century, with some community members wanting them to stay.