Sussan Ley backs NSW plan to rein in brumbies at Kosciuszko

NSW aims to cut the number of feral horses from an estimated 14,000 to 3000 over six years.

Brumbies in the Kosciuszko National Park in Kiandra, NSW. Picture: Sean Davey.

Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley has backed NSW’s plan to reduce the state’s ballooning number of wild horses in Kosciuszko National Park, but warned the “true test” will be the environmental outcomes.

The NSW government released its draft Kosciuszko wild horse management plan for public consultation on Friday. Under the proposal, the state will aim to cut the number of feral horses from an estimated 14,000 to 3000 over six years. About one third of Kosciuszko will be set aside for “heritage” brumbies.

Ms Ley had previously warned NSW she was prepared to intervene if the state failed to curtail its population of wild horses to a more sustainable level, arguing it had a responsibility to limit the ecological damage caused by the animals in the heritage-listed park. Wild horses’ trampling of ecosystems in Australia’s Alpine region erodes waterways, destroys habits of endangered species and compounds the environmental damage from bushfires.

On Monday, Ms Ley said the “science was clear” about the horses’ environmental impact in the park.

“Damage by feral horses has already occurred in the fragile alpine region. The starting point for any plan must be the implementation of urgent environmental protection,” she told The Australian.

“While the draft plan is a step in the right direction, the true test will be in what positive environmental outcomes it can achieve for the alpine region and the native species that rely on it.”

NSW’s new brumbies plan comes three years after its previous plan was scrapped by departing Deputy Premier John Barilaro who instead introduced legislation to protect brumbies on heritage grounds.

Under the new plan, ground shooting of wild horses will be permitted for the first time. But aerial culling – a control method not used in the state’s national parks since 2000 – ­remains off the cards. NSW is the only jurisdiction where the aerial culling of wild horses in national parks is banned.

Brumby numbers in Kosciuszko have skyrocketed in recent years from an estimated 6,000 in 2014 to about 14,000 last year. An Australian Alps feral horse aerial survey conducted between 2014 to 2019 showed that the horse population in the park was increasing by about 20 per cent per year.

The NSW government is currently removing brumbies from the national park using trapping and rehoming methods with private owners. But according to the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, about one-third of feral horses trapped in the park between July last year and April have been released back into the wild for ethical reasons, mainly heavily pregnant mares or foals.