Parks Victoria forced to feed flood-stranded brumbies

Parks Victoria’s bid to shootout brumbies has ground to a halt, after it was ordered to fly in feed to a mob of 150 flood-stranded horses.

Parks Victoria’s bid to shootout Barmah Forest brumbies has ground to a halt, after it was ordered to fly in feed to a mob of 150 flood-stranded horses from tomorrow.

Barmah Brumby Preservation Group vice-president Murray Willaton said Parks Victoria’s senior managers refused to act 10 days ago, after one of the group’s members spotted a mob of 150-odd horses stranded in the middle of the park.

“When we got in there (in a tinnie), it was horrific, with more than 20 dead horses,” Mr Willaton said. “They’d probably been there for two weeks.”

One of 20 flood-stranded brumbies that died or starvation, alongside a grey kangaroo. Picture: Dean Marsland.

“We contacted the RSPCA and Parks Victoria, but got no response at all – just local managers telling us they’d contact their head manager, then nothing.”

Frustrated with the lack of action, the Brumby Group organised volunteers with six tinnies to head 4km out into the flooded forest with donated hay to feed, not only the brumbies, but wallabies and roos that were clustered on a small island of dry land.

Barmah Brumby Preservation Group volunteers take their tinnies of hay out to stranded brumbies. Picture: Dean Marsland

“I had one poor wallaby that had waded out into the water, which was so exhausted I got close enough to almost hand feed it,” Mr Willaton said.

In the meantime news of the stranded brumbies spread via the group’s Facebook page, leading to donations pouring in from within Australia and overseas.

Enough funding was raised for the group to hire a helicopter, which flew in 20 round bales of hay to the stranded animals on Monday this week.

But given the groups limited resources and Parks Victoria’s refusal to act, Mr Willaton contacted the Shepparton incident controller’s team, in charge of flood response, pleading for help.

“I lodged a report with them, and they came back yesterday to say they had taken control of the incident and Parks Victoria had been told to start feeding these animals – as they’re required to do under the POCTA (Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act),” he said.

Mr Willaton said the horses could be stranded for weeks, which meant Parks Victoria maintaining its feeding program.

A stranded and exhausted brumby foal, surrounded by the mob. Picture: Dean Marsland

Parks Victoria refused to answer questions on the feed-out or whether the brumbies would still be shot at some future date, referring The Weekly Times to the Shepparton ICC team.

Incident controller Ray Jasper said his team was working with Parks Victoria, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning staff to feed the horses and wildlife.

“We’ve had vets in place for the last three days and we’re working with the Brumby Preservation Group,” Mr Jasper said.

He said animals were stranded on seven high-ground locations within the park, but three of those locations were large areas with plenty of feed.

Parks Victoria is engaged in a program to wipe out brumbies in both the Barmah and Alpine National Parks, but refuses to detail how many animals have been shot to date.

Parks Victoria has demanded contract shooters operate covertly, due to what it calls the “significant risk posed by feral horse activists” and sign confidentiality agreements.

Yet the Barmah Group signed an agreement with Parks Victoria to rehome brumbies using a purpose built sanctuary, using $100,000 in donations.

Volunteers have saved 32 Barmah brumbies for rehoming in its sanctuary adjoining the forest. Picture: Zoe Phillips

But Mr Willaton said Parks Victoria had told them it was too difficult and expensive to trap the horses, and had resorted instead to shooting.

Barmah Brumby Preservation Group president Julie Pridmore with volunteers Sue Lubke and Cheryl Hill in the yards they built on their horse sanctuary. Picture: Zoe Phillips