Major vote could spell the end of Snowy Mountain brumbies

A landmark bill potentially paving the way for the removal of brumbies from the NSW Snowy Mountains could become law within days.

The NSW upper house is set to resume debate next week on a proposal to scrap the mandate for feral horse populations in the Kosciuszko National Park.

Under the management plan, 3000 wild horses are to be retained in 32 per cent of the park to protect the “heritage value”.

If the Bill passes, that plan would be phased out by 2027 and the wild horse advisory panel scrapped, paving the way for a new program that could seek to have the horses removed altogether.

Activists have long decried the harmful impact the introduced horses have on the delicate alpine ecosystem and say no number of horses is sustainable.

Campaigns and petitions have sought to repeal the current measures, which were enabled by former Deputy Premier John Barilaro’s 2018 so-called Brumby Bill.

Invasive Species Council volunteer Linda Groom has been involved in the campaign to scrap the Brumby Bill for eight years and said she was “happy and anxious”.

“It’s just been such a long time and this last part seems to drag so slowly,” she said.

Independent Wagga Wagga MP Dr Joe McGirr first introduced the legislation to scrap the Brumby Bill to the upper house in June.

Passing through the lower house, the Bill received support from Opposition Leader Mark Speakman, ensuring its success there before returning to the upper house.

“You kind of think ‘oh, is something going to go wrong at the last minute’?” Ms Groom said.

“The arguments seem to have percolated far enough (and) enough politicians have seen the evidence that they’re willing to vote for repeal (the Brumby Bill) now.”

Ms Groom was an avid bushwalker before becoming involved in the campaign.

“I’d seen some horse damage in the high country, but I didn’t think a great deal about it,” she said.

Then the Brumby Bill was introduced.

“I just thought it was such a bad law. I had to do something,” she said.

Ms Groom organised a protest walk from Sydney to the top of Kosciuszko.

She has since organised three petitions, during which she had one-on-one conversations with people about feral horses in the park.

“Occasionally they don’t sign, but they walk away thinking ‘well, I didn’t sign, but that person didn’t have two heads. She wasn’t a table thumper. She was a reasonable person’.”

Asked how she’d feel once the Bill passed, Ms Groom said she would be “amazingly happy”.

“There’s still work to do to get a new plan in, but at least it will be on the right trails. I’ll be thrilled,” she said.

Campaigners and environmental managers have long pointed to damage done by brumbies on the Snowy Mountains’ delicate alpine ecosystem.

An ecosystem the NSW Parks and Wildlife Service revealed in new pictures in May was slowly starting to recover amid a drop in feral horse numbers.

Invasive Species Council chief executive Jack Gough said the movement to reform the Bill had “united people from every corner of the state and every side of politics”.

“When the facts were laid bare, almost all MPs agreed that protecting a feral species over endangered wildlife was indefensible,” he said.

“This has been an incredible example of what’s possible when we find common ground.

“The courage shown by MPs across party lines shows that caring for nature isn’t partisan – it’s a shared responsibility.”

Mr Gough said the Bill, if passed, would set a precedent.

“Not just for how we manage feral horses but for how we approach all invasive species,” he said.

“It will be living proof that with courage, collaboration and compassion, we can tackle the hardest environmental challenges in our country.”

The debate around brumbies, their history in Australia and how to manage them, has been controversial.

Horses first arrived in Australia with the First Fleet in 1788.

References to wild horses, or brumbies, being pests in NSW and Queensland throughout the 1800s was noted in newspaper reports.

“Wild cattle and horses are becoming great pests in the NSW interior,” The Sydney Morning Herald reported in 1843.

But, the horses also captured the popular imagination of the settler culture of the time.

In 1895, famed Australian poet Banjo Paterson penned Brumby’s Run.

“A wild, unhandled lot they are. Of every shape and breed. They venture out ’neath moon and star. Along the flats to feed,” he wrote.

In 1944, Kosciuszko was proclaimed a state park before being made a national park in 1967.

By the 2000s, debate began about the use of what would prove to be the most controversial, though one of many, control methods: aerial shooting.

The measure was ruled out by the government of the time in 2008 after feral horse populations dropped to as low as 1000 in 2003.

Eight years later, the government-commissioned independent Technical Reference Group found aerial culling to be one of the most humane methods.

Mr Barilaro introduced the Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heritage Act in 2018 that led to a mandate that wild horse numbers be reduced to 3000 by 2027 while also recognising their supposed heritage value.

The Act kicked off a years-long campaign to repeal it, including a constitutional challenge and petitions racking up tens of thousands of signatures.

While popular, the campaign has not been without its opponents.

In September, an electronic petition to counter an earlier petition to repeal the Brumby Bill reached 5475 signatures.

The pushback reached its zenith in 2022 when National Parks staff overseeing aerial culling even received threats.

There is no suggestion anyone involved with the petition was connected to the threats.