Locals mourn brumbies as Chris Minns government ramps up culling

Some Snowy Mountains residents say they are distraught as the Minns government increases its culling of wild horses in Kosciuszko Nat­ional Park, lamenting it is becoming a place ‘that has no meaning’.

Brumbies forage for food in deep snow in the Kiandra Plains region of the Kosciuszko National Park in 2020. Picture: Getty Images

Some Snowy Mountains residents say they are distraught as the Minns government increases its culling of wild horses in Kosciuszko Nat­ional Park, lamenting it is becoming a place “that has no meaning”.

The government says it has removed just under 1000 brumbies from the area in the three months to December 2023 – be it through culling, rehoming or euthanising – compared to about 2500 horses in the two years prior – an average rate increase around threefold.

In November, Environment Minister Penny Sharpe authorised a two-day trial of aerial shooting – where authorities shoot horses from a helicopter – that killed 270 horses over two days, she told parliament.

Claire Rothheudt, 65, said she had seen horse carcasses while she was driving around the area and on social media. “When I was a little girl, I grew up in Canberra,” she said. “The Snowy Mountains and the brumbies were just something … there all my life; it’s part of who we are as Australians.

“They live in the most beautiful family groups, they look after each other, they care, they grieve. When one dies, they grieve. And to see bodies around that may not have died quickly … I cry all the time because it’s just so overwhelming that this can go on in a compassionate society.”

Locals and supporters have raised more than $75,000 over 900 individual donations on a crowd-funding page to commission a recount of the horses in the area to challenge the government’s figures, suggesting it may be an overcount.

Local builder/butcher Rocky Harvey – who set up the crowd-funding page – felt compelled to act when he came across a field with 67 horse carcasses last year.

“That got me quite fired up,” he said.

Mr Harvey made headlines last year when he dumped a decapitated horse head at a national park office in protest.

“My initial thing was just how disgraceful it was,” he said. “The park’s supposed to be pristine – these are rivers that are just crystal-clear little creeks, I drink straight from them. I’ve hunted, I live on land … but this was in quite public areas, really close to a public campground … The disrespect to park users – National Parks is just sort of going, we don’t care about our park users.”

This has been a hot-button issue in NSW politics for the past decade since the brumby population was deemed unsustainable following pressure from environmental groups. The popu­lation, according to the govern­ment’s last count, sat between 12,797 and 21,760 in October.

It last year outlined ambitions to meet a legislated 2027 target to reduce the population to 3000.