Barmah brumby haven ready but Parks Victoria still plans to shoot

A brumby preservation group has built a home for Barmah Forest wild horses. But Parks Victoria still want them shot.

Barmah Brumby Preservation Group volunteers and president Julie Pridmore have built a haven for the Barmah forest’s wild horses. Picture: Zoe Phillips

Barmah Forest National Park’s brumbies are at risk of being shot, despite a local preservation group raising $90,000 to establish a 120ha haven for the horses on a neighbouring Yielima property.

Barmah Brumby Preservation Group president Julie Pridmore said Parks Victoria seemed hell bent on shooting horses, despite her members and even international donors pouring funds into what is now a fully functional Barmah Brumby Heritage Horse Haven.

“We have 10,000 members and about half those have donated money, including people from the US, Canada, Ireland and even Switzerland, that’s allowed us to take out a 10 year lease on the property,” Ms Pridmore said.

The group has upgraded the property with new fencing, yards, a $10,000 solar-powered bore, plus sown 40ha of cereals and stored several semi-loads of donated fodder to feed the first batch of 90 horses they plan to take this year.

Ms Pridmore said the goal was to move the horses out of the park, with some sold to the public or passed on to other brumby groups, while maintaining a viable breeding mob on the property “to keep our culture and history alive”.

Yet despite the group’s commitment Parks Victoria northern regional director Daniel McLaughlin wrote to them last month stating “shooting will be one of the techniques we use to reduce horse numbers, and for the safety of staff and contractors the timing of these operations will not be shared”.

Parks Victoria has approved the preservation group taking 90 horses, but has delayed trapping 60 of those horses until the Yielima haven’s pastures have regrown in spring.

“At present your proposal provides rehoming options for 30 horses, with potential for 60 more (in spring),” Mr McLaughlin said. “The amount of horses in Barmah is much higher than the amount of re-homing options available.”

Parks Victoria’s aerial surveys of the Barmah forest put the total brumby population at 540, which has led to the development of its strategic plan to clear them out at a rate of about 100 a year.

But the preservation group’s vice president Murray Willaton wrote to Parks Victoria stating: “putting us off to November basically gives you a green light to shoot brumbies to meet your first (2020-21) financial year management plan target” of 100 to 120.

“It is obvious that shooting is your preferable method because it is easy and quick.”

A Gippsland veterinarian commissioned by Parks Victoria to inspect the Yielima property in April found the Preservation Group: “demonstrated a good knowledge of horse husbandry and willingness to invest in quality infrastructure”, including “an excellent quality 8-wire boundary fence”.

A Parks Victoria spokesman said they were working with the preservation group, but “to ensure the safety of staff and contractors and the welfare of horses, operational details and timing of feral horse management operations are not made publicly available”.

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