Monday, December 19, 2011

New England's brumbies

This photo from Gordon Smith is simply entitled Brumbies. 

The caption reads:

Brumbies watch us as we pass them by. The stallion in the foreground was especially interested in making sure that his harem was kept away from us.

There is a certain romance about the brumby, descendants of horses that escaped from or were abandoned by European settlers. In Australia, they are best known in the Alpine country in the Monaro and Victoria, but they have been a feature of New England life or many years. Their control has been a matter of some debate.  

According to Wikipedia, between 22 October and 24 October 2000, approximately 600 Brumbies were shot in the Guy Fawkes River National Park by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. The public outcry that followed led the NSW Government to establish a Steering Committee to investigate alternative methods of control.[52] Since the campaign began to remove horses from the national park, over 400 have been passively trapped and taken from the Park, and 200 of these have been re-homed.

In 2007, the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service commenced a plan to reduce Brumby numbers in the Oxley Wild Rivers National Park by passive trapping . Over 60 brumbies captured in the Apsley River Gorge have now been re-homed.

2 comments:

Keith said...

Just acroos the track from our property is a Brumby Farm. Brumbies are captured & transported to this farm for training & are aventually sold to vetted buyers. The money goes back into the property & I guess a portion must go to the collective private owners. I think a far better way than shooting these beautiful animals.
Regards, Keith.
http://woodsrunnersdiary.blogspot.com/

Jim Belshaw said...

Hi Keith. How interesting. At some stage on an Armidale trip I must visit your place!