Chapter 3Impacts of feral horses on the Australian Alps
Overview
3.1The committee heard that feral horses cause serious environmental damage to the Australian Alps. These animals cause environmental degradation and can increase the risk of extinction of threatened species. Large hard-hooved herbivores such as feral horses cause major environmental damage by trampling the grasses and mosses, displacing soil, grazing of vegetation, compacting the soil, damaging banks, and degrading the habitat of native animals.
3.2According to the Threatened Species Scientific Committee (TSSC), native vertebrate animals are under direct threat from the presence of feral horses in the Alps, with at least 14 species of vertebrate animals in the Australian Alps threatened with extinction. Feral horses are documented as a threat to 12 of these.
3.3The TSSC further stated that while these animals may be impacted by several threatening processes, ‘feral horses may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’.
3.4This chapter explores key impacts of feral horses on the Australian Alps, including on:
vegetation and soil through trampling, wallowing and grazing;
fragile sphagnum moss and associated fens;
headwaters of major rivers; and
Indigenous cultural heritage.
Environmental impacts of feral horses across the Australian Alps
3.5Alpine ecosystems are rare and unique in Australia, making up only 0.03 per cent of the country. The natural ecosystems and species present in the Australian Alps have evolved over millions of years. The Australian Government recognises the widespread environmental damage caused by feral horses, and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) noted that ‘feral horses are the single most significant cause of widespread environmental degradation throughout their range in alpine parks’.
3.6Dr Fiona Fraser, Threatened Species Commissioner, set out similar concerns:
For many of those [threatened species and ecological communities], it is the most significant threat at this point in time. They have got to the status of being threatened through other threats historically—through disease, through climate change generally—but horses literally could be the last knell for them.
3.7The Australian Academy of Science submitted that the impacts of feral horses on the Australian Alps must be addressed in order to meet the Australian Government’s goal of no new extinctions, as the area is ‘one of three bioregions in Australia supporting the highest number of Australia’s most imperilled vertebrates’.
3.8The imperative to conserve critically endangered species was highlighted by the TSSC who stated that, as the population numbers were likely to double in the next five years, there is a need for urgent action.
3.9Feral horses overgraze large areas as they can travel large distances and degrade water sources, which affects native plants and animals. This can lead to extinction for native plants and animals across a wide landscape.
3.10Deakin University described the damage as ‘substantial and measurable’, and increasing numbers of feral horses mean that they are a ‘far greater threat…than ever before.’
3.11The three Australian Alps land manager governments agreed that feral horses cause measurable damage to the natural environment. The ACT Government, which has a zero-tolerance approach to feral horses, set out that the damage feral horses have on the environment and biodiversity is ‘in most cases catastrophic’:
Feral horses damage and destroy vegetation, trample and compact soil, and compete with native wildlife for food and water resources. Feral horses may also spread weeds and alter fire regimes, which can negatively impact the survival of native or threatened species. Additionally, feral horses impact aquatic environments and species and create hardened trails which can expose/fragment ground dwelling fauna such as reptiles and small mammals, increasing predation risk and changing fine scale movements.
3.12Ms Rebecca Vassarotti, MLA, Minister for the Environment in the ACT, echoed this sentiment, and noted that damage to waterways in KNP is visible when viewed from the air. Ms Vassarotti further stated that ‘[b]y comparison, no damage is occurring in the ACT, due to our zero-tolerance policy’.
3.13The Invasive Species Council described the harm that feral horses cause through erosion, pollution and overgrazing in the area:
...they are having a significant impact in terms of damage to some of those sensitive riparian areas—for example, wetlands and streams—through erosion of banks and through pollution...you can't walk 10 metres without seeing piles and piles of horse manure...They are causing damage through the grazing pressure.
3.14The environmental impacts of feral horses in the Australian Alps have been noted in several Commonwealth, state and territory government policies. The NSW Government noted that feral horses cause direct damage to the environment, including:
increase soil erosion – by killing vegetation, disturbing the soil and creating paths along frequently used routes
destroy native plants – by grazing and trampling
foul waterholes
cause the collapse of wildlife burrows
compete with native animals for food and shelter
compete with livestock for pastures – particularly during periods of drought
spread weeds – through their dung and in their hair
spread disease
pose a risk to public safety – such as on high speed roads and highways.
Figure 3.1Unimpacted waterway with intact vegetation in KNP
Source: NSW Government
3.15The NSW Government stated that feral horses, which currently occur in 53 per cent of KNP, cause ‘significant, adverse and ongoing impacts to the natural, cultural and recreational values of the park’ (for instance, compare Figures 3.1 and 3.2).
Figure 3.2Damage to KNP waterway and vegetation caused by feral horses
Source: NSW Government
3.16Damage from feral horse trampling is described in Parks Victoria’s Protection of the Alpine National Park: Feral Horse Action Plan 2021, stating that some native animals depend on the ‘complexity and intactness of the unique alpine vegetation communities…some of which are entirely restricted to alpine environments and many of which are endangered’. These include skinks, as well as plants like orchids, sedges and mosses.
3.17Parks Victoria highlighted that feral horses are listed as a potentially threatening process in the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 (Vic), and the risk posed to sphagnum bogs and associated fens, as well as other threatened species and communities is listed at the state and Commonwealth level.
3.18Deakin University outlined the species that rely on the area to survive. Table 3.1 is adapted from the information provided in a related paper:
Table 3.1Impacts of feral horses on species in the Australian Alps
| | | |
Stocky Galaxias | Sediment-free boulder and cobble stream habitats | Increase sedimentation | Situation caused by feral horses could destroy multiple home ranges throughout this species’ remaining distribution |
Northern Corroboree Frog | Deep moss and grass litter to build nests where eggs are laid | Destroy sphagnum moss and reduce vegetation depth to below the mean depth of nests in horse free areas | Feral horse damage is a threat, increasing risk of egg desiccation, interruption of breeding, undermining reintroduction programmes |
Alpine She-Oak Skink | Tussock grasslands with sufficient native grass cover to provide protection from predators and thermal extremes | Damage to grasses and other palatable species through grazing and trampling, increase bare ground | Feral horses increase bare ground and reduce grass cover, increasing predation risk and reducing thermal buffering, ultimately reducing habitat suitability |
Broad-toothed Rat | Grasses and shrubs for runways, good, insulation in winter, protection from feral predators | Reduce shrub and grass cover, height and density | Feral horses will destroy grass runways and compete for food. Could also increase predation rates and habitat fragmentation |
Mountain Pygmy Possum | Deep boulder fields, shrubs for protection from predators and to create space below the snow | Increase sedimentation, trample shrubs | Feral horses will degrade habitat, reduce food resources and shelter |
Source: Driscoll et al (2019), ‘Impacts of feral horses in the Australian Alps and evidence-based solutions’. Ecological Management & Restoration, 20: 63‒72.
Damage caused by trampling, wallowing and grazing
3.19The NSW Government’s Kosciuszko Management Plan notes the negative impacts of feral horses on KNP, including trampling of vegetation which leads to soil loss.
3.20In its final report, the Independent Technical Reference Group (ITRG), which provided independent and rigorous scientific and technical advice to the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) and National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) on the management of wild horses within KNP, noted documented environmental impacts of feral horses, including trampling damage to vegetation and networks of tracks, damage to soil through compaction and erosion, and damage to waterways.
3.21Fences have been set up to exclude feral horses from certain areas, which highlights the difference between areas free from horses and areas affected (see Figure 3.3). The Invasive Species Council highlighted the contrast between impacted and unimpacted areas for species like the Broad-toothed rat, which use grasses for their burrows:
You can see really intact vegetation…Right next to that on the fence, you see what you would see in a farm paddock—heavily grazed. They're also causing damage for some species, in terms of direct damage—for example, for some of our frog species, in terms of trampling…But a lot of it is the damage to riparian areas. These are the headwaters of our major river systems—a very large percentage of the water that comes into the Murray and the Murrumbidgee systems—and they are being trashed and trampled by feral horses.
Figure 3.3Fencing dividing impacted and unimpacted land
Source: Reclaim Kosci, The horse damage (accessed 30 June 2023)
3.22Deakin University described the damage to the Australian Alps observed through its research and published scientific literature, and stated that these large, hoofed herbivores graze, trample and wallow, which leads to the ‘degradation, depletion and destruction of habitat’. Pressure on individual species can be through:
trampling and grazing of vegetation, which destroys habitat cover and complexity and means that small native animals are more exposed to invasive predators such as foxes and cats. Breeding sites for Northern Corroboree Frogs are also destroyed by trampling;
the exposed ground layer means that small animals which normally survive winter when the snow settles on the tops of plants and forms an insulating blanket around them are at risk of not surviving the colder temperatures, as the snow loses its platform; and
soil from heavily grazed and trampled areas can wash into waterways, which destroys under water habitats for fish like the Stocky Galaxias.
3.23The Fenner School of Environment and Society added that the entire population of the Stocky Galaxias is currently protected by a fence to stop trampling, which is not a long-term solution, nor one that protects this species from reduced habitat and reduced adaptability to climate change.
3.24The destruction of areas that are breeding sites for Northern Corroboree Frogs was also highlighted by Deakin University.
3.25The Fenner School of Environment and Society highlighted that feral horses can spread into areas previously free of their presence, and impact corroboree frog populations already critically endangered. Feral horses are ‘undoubtedly contributing to the ongoing decline of Northern Corroboree Frogs and their habitat quality’ in state forest areas adjacent to KNP. Very small populations are currently being protected by fences:
If feral horses expand further into the Bogong Peaks Wilderness Area, they will likely threaten and hasten the decline of all remaining Northern Corroboree Frog populations. One extant population in Kosciuszko National Park with more than ten adult frogs, and which is being significantly impacted by feral horses, is in the process of being protected via the installation of horse exclusion fencing.
Southern Corroboree Frogs (Pseydophryne corroboree) and Northern Corrroboree Frogs (Pseudophryne pengilleyi) are critically endangered, and only exist in the high country of southern NSW and the ACT. They are part of the alpine ecosystem and remove algae from ponds, even as tadpoles, thus helping to clean waterways. 
Source: Taronga Conservation Society Australia, Corroboree Frog They are no more than 3cms in length, and feature distinctive yellow and black stripes. Habitat degradation by feral horses and pigs, climate change and disease are major threats to frogs. They are listed as ‘critically endangered’ under the EPBC. There are fewer than 1,000 adult Northern Corroboree Frogs in the wild, and fewer than 30Southern Corroboree Frogs in the wild. The Northern Corroboree Frog is found only in sphagnum bogs within the Brindabella and Fiery Ranges in NSW/ACT. The Southern Corroboree Frog is found only within Kosciuszko National Park at heights of 1,300 to 1,760 metres above sea level. Northern and Southern Corroboree Frogs live in the ‘horse removal area’ of KNP, which means that they are currently under threat of feral horses until the Kosciuszko Management Plan is fully implemented. |
3.26Evidence provided by Deakin University contrasted areas of the Alpine parks damaged by feral horses with similar unimpacted vegetation types within the ACT. These images typically highlighted the damage to narrow creeks and waterways, including widening and damage to drainage and torn up soil structure known as ‘pugging’.
3.27‘Pugging’ is the term given when hard-hooved animals like horses or cows have damaged a soil’s structure through compression by standing on it. Wet soils are more susceptible to this type of damage, and it is seen at the edge of waterways (see Figure 3.4). The topsoil of a pugged area is less able to allow water to pass through, effectively becoming a seal, and damage can require minimal restoration work if the damage has been light, or full resowing of the area.
3.28Waterways are particularly attractive to feral horses, and the erosion and damage to the riparian environment (banks and edges of water) can affect the ability of animals who rely on the water to spawn, as the erosion smothers and kills fish eggs, decreases water quality and breeding and feeding habitats. The effect of feral horses on waterways is discussed below.
3.29Pugging can lead to reduced growth, reduced density of flora, and leaching of nutrients such as potassium, sulphur and nitrogen from the soil. The subsoil can have less soil aeration and water movement, which reduces root activity and density, and leads to a reduction in beneficial organisms and soil biota.
Source: NSW Government
Box 3.2 Broad-toothed Rats Broad-toothed Rats (Mastacomys fuscus) live in alpine and sub-alpine heaths and eucalypt woodlands, wet schlerophyll forests, grasslands and wet sedgelands. 
Source: Australian Museum, Broad-toothed Rat. They grow up to 17 cm in size, with a broad face, short tail and stocky body. They have soft, dense brown-tinged fur, with small ears. Broad-toothed Rats prefer high rainfall areas with low temperatures and moderate to dense ground cover of grasses, shrubs or boulders. This species has experienced significant decline and is threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation, predation by feral foxes and cats, and climate change. Broad-toothed Rats live in the horse retention area of Kosciuszko National Park. The NSW Government notes that feral horses ‘degrade habitat/cover and disturb the species’. The Kosciuszko Management Plan notes that riparian damage caused by feral horses removes habitat and food sources for the Broad-toothed Rat: Wild horses are known to degrade the habitat of the broad-toothed rat by grazing and trampling grasses, which alters the vegetation structure and reduces grass height, making it less suitable as habitat for the broad-toothed rat... Scientific evidence suggests that as the negative impacts of horses increases, the presence and abundance of the broad-toothed rat decreases. They are listed as ‘vulnerable’ under Commonwealth and NSW biodiversity conservation laws. |
Damage to Alpine sphagnum bogs and associated fens
3.30A number of listed threatened plant species that rely on intact and undisturbed habitats are found in Alpine sphagnum bogs. Since 2009, Alpine Sphagnum Bogs and Associated Fens have been listed as a threatened ecological community under the EPBCAct. Such threatened ecological communities are considered matters of national environmental significance (MNES), and are protected matters under the EPBCAct.
3.31A recovery plan is in place at the Commonwealth level for the Alpine Sphagnum Bogs and Associated Fens ecological community, including those in the Australian Alps. Its objective is to ‘maintain or extend the current known extent (area) and maintain or improve the condition of the Alpine Sphagnum Bogs and Associated Fens ecological community over the life of the recovery plan’.
3.32The recovery plan, which was issued in 2009, sets out that the threat of feral horses has a national severity rating of ‘very high’. The Commonwealth’s recovery plan for this ecological community notes that the persistence of feral horses ‘is likely to be critical to the survival of a number of…species’.
3.33Four threatened frog species, including critically endangered, endangered, and vulnerable, use this ecological community for breeding and habitat. Three threatened species of skinks also use this ecological community, including nationally endangered, and state-listed critically endangered and endangered species.
3.34Sphagnum moss is particularly affected by being trampled by horses’ hooves as it is easily crushed, and once the cover of sphagnum is lost, the alpine soil and peat are susceptible to desiccation, incision, soil erosion and channel formation. Alpine sphagnum bogs and associated fens are at particular risk of damage from feral horses. Dr Jennie Whinam, University of Tasmania, noted that the prevention of new populations of feral species was a priority of the National Recovery Plan relating to these bogs.
3.35Sphagnum moss can absorb large amounts of water and the underlying peat can regulate the spread of water, which can prevent soil erosion. Sphagnum moss acts as a natural filter, which maintains water quality. Critically endangered Southern and Northern Corroboree Frogs, among others, depend on alpine bog and fen environments for survival.
3.36Around 30 per cent of the Alpine Sphagnum Bogs and Associated Fens are within the horse-retention area as set out in the Kosciuszko Management Plan, which is detailed in Chapter 4.
3.37Deakin University submitted that a variety of listed threatened species rely on the alpine sphagnum bogs and fens to be intact and not disturbed by trampling.
3.38South Endeavour Trust owns the Crooks Racecourse reserve bordering KNP on three sides, and has taken measures to protect the bogs and fens and endangered species from feral horses and other threats:
For this reason we have expended very substantial funds on otherwise totally unnecessary fencing to try to keep feral horses from the National Park out of our reserve. That is, we have had to spend substantial amounts of very scarce conservation funding simply on trying to keep the NSW Government’s feral horses out of our conservation reserve. This is beyond a sub-optimal situation.
Impact of feral horses on headwaters
3.39Australia is the driest inhabited continent on earth. The Australian Alps are home to the headwaters of the Murrumbidgee, Snowy and part of the Murray Rivers. An annual average of 9,600 gigalitres of high-quality water are delivered from the Alps to the Murray-Darling Basin (around 30 per cent of the total Basin average annual flows).
3.40Feral horses directly impact water quality and catchment health, by polluting waterways and causing erosion. Deakin University stated that catchment health is worse in areas where feral horses are present. Further, the Fenner School for Environment and Society set out the impact that feral horses have on waterway health:
Horse faeces add to the nutrient pollution of alpine streams. Higher nutrient loads and temperatures exacerbate downstream water quality problems, including cyanobacteria (blue green algae) blooms and may exacerbate invasive weed populations.
3.41High-quality water from the Australian Alps, which flows to the Murray‑Darling Basin has been estimated to be worth $9.6 billion annually to the Australian economy. High levels of rain, and low evaporation rates in alpine areas, along with the water holding capacity of snow and alpine soils and vegetation help to distribute water downstream throughout the year.
3.42The National Heritage listing for the area recognises water harvesting for its outstanding heritage value to the nation, noting that water harvested from headwaters in the Australian Alps National Parks and Reserves contributes to the water needs of Canberra and Melbourne.
3.43The Murrumbidgee catchment is significant to the supply of water to NSW and the ACT, and almost one-third of the population living in the Murray-Darling Basin live in the Murrumbidgee catchment.
3.44The Murrumbidgee catchment supplies water for a quarter of NSW fruit and vegetable production (including nearly half the NSW grape harvest) and half of Australia’s rice production. The Tumut River, the largest tributary in the Murrumbidgee catchment, houses part of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme.
3.45The source of the Murrumbidgee is in the Australian Alps, with an annual average rainfall in the cool temperate alpine regions of 1,600 mm. Melted snow from the alpine mountains contributes to the water supply in the catchment. Surface water makes up 98 per cent of water resources for the ACT.
3.46Icon Water (the ACT’s supplier of drinking water and wastewater services) noted the ‘importance of the Australian Alps as an ecological community in supplying quality raw water to the catchment’.
3.47The Commonwealth and Public Sector Union (CPSU) argued that the degradation of waterways by feral horses affects public health:
It is more than an environmental issue, but a public health issue for our national capital to have horses’ waste, increased sediment and reduced vegetation filtration, flow and volume in the water catchment.
3.48Deakin University described the damage caused by feral horses to waterways as leading to bare, unvegetated areas that diminish the catchment conditions:
Ultimately, this leads to the loss of the functional, hydrological and water filtering role of these groundwater fed ecosystems and diminishes the reliability of high-quality water yields downstream. The damage being caused to these water-dependent ecosystems is comparable to the worst historic damage by domestic sheep and cattle grazing pressures that triggered the removal of stock from the Kosciuszko National Park, beginning in the late 1950s.
3.49Trampling and grazing increase water turbidity, which affects water quality at the site of the trampling and also downstream. The Australian Academy of Science highlighted studies conducted outside the Australian Alps region which demonstrated that in some cases ‘horse affected waterways peaked at 50 times the national turbidity guideline, with summer seasonal averages seen at 8 times the national guideline’.
Impact on Indigenous cultural heritage
3.50The significance of Indigenous cultural heritage in the Australian Alps has been recognised in the National Heritage listing, and in the management plans of the states and territory who share management of the area.
3.51Indigenous heritage values in National Heritage listed places are protected, by the EPBC Act, from actions which may have a significant impact on them. These are assessed and managed through cooperation, particularly with Indigenous people, as set out in the National Heritage management principles:
Indigenous people are the primary source of information on the value of their heritage and the active participation of Indigenous people in identification, assessment and management is integral to the effective protection of indigenous heritage values.
3.52The National Heritage listing for the Australian Alps recognises that it is the site of historic gatherings of Indigenous peoples for ceremonies such as the bogong moth feasting. DCCEEW noted that ‘there is a high risk that an excessive number of feral horses in the Australian Alps poses a danger to important First Nations heritage values’, and added that the area has significant connections to Indigenous culture:
More than 18 First Nations clan groups from across south-eastern Australia have social or spiritual connections to the Australian Alps as part of their traditional country or a place in which they have other rights. First Nations people view the Australian Alps as a country interconnected by dreaming stories and ceremonial paths. The landscape is associated with places of spiritual significance and creation ancestors and the Australian Alps have been a meeting place for several nations, where traditional practices have been carried out.
3.53In addition to the gazetted National Heritage values, DCCEEW noted the following Indigenous cultural heritage connections in the Alps:
While not included in the gazetted National Heritage values of the place, First Nations people have identified many places of value within the Australian Alps National Parks and Reserves National Heritage place, such as dreaming trails, spiritual places, ceremonial places, story places, named places, birthing places, food and medicine collection localities, raw material collection localities, and men's and women's places.
3.54Mr James Blackwell, an Indigenous Diplomacy Research Fellow at the Australian National University, identified that feral horses cause damage to the cultural heritage of Indigenous peoples within the alpine region, and noted rivers in the region that are of cultural significance to Ngunnuwal, Ngarigo, Ngambri, Wiradyuri, Jaithmathang and others. Mr Blackwell explained that sites where communities would gather for ceremonies, to share knowledge and to trade are now ‘overrun by horses’ and not able to be used:
As a Wiradyuri person, country is more than just the mere land itself, but everything on and within it; the rivers, the rocks, the plants, and the animals.
We are tasked to preserve all of these things, and respect our country, and the country of others. To see and experience the Australian Alps degraded to such a point that it is now hurts every single one of us. It is a pain and an anguish over the state of our country, and our neighbours' country. It is something which offends us, and also which must be rectified if we are to live in harmony with our law again. The damage to the Alpine region is not just environmental. It is also the cultural destruction of the Indigenous peoples of the region. We are our country; if it is damaged and destroyed, so too are we damaged and destroyed.
3.55Mr Blackwell elaborated on the destruction being caused to Indigenous cultural heritage in the area, arguing that feral horses should not be given prominence over 65,000 years of Indigenous culture:
We have responsibility to these places for future generations and to mitigate damage done to them, and we know what is causing the most damage in the alpine region: feral horses. Our cultural heritage is at risk, and the main thing preventing us fixing it is an idea that feral horses are somehow themselves worthy of protection. They are not. They are not part of this place, and they do not belong there. To argue they are worthy of protection due to the settler heritage of the region both ignores and disrespects our Indigenous cultural heritage, which has existed for over 65,000 years. It also places the environment below the said heritage. It is like arguing against cane toad management so as to preserve the cultural heritage of the Queensland sugarcane industry.
3.56The Jaithmathang Traditional Ancestral Bloodline Original Owners First Nation Aboriginal Corporation (Jaithmathang) told the committee about the impact of feral horses in the Alpine, Bogong and Omeo High Plains Country, and detailed the damage to their traditional lands caused by feral horses:
It only takes a moment after seeing these horses in flight to imagine the amount of damage done to Bimble when 4 hoofs under a weight of a horse that weighs in the average vicinity of 700 to 1,000 kilos and can travel at speeds of 88kms without a rider and averaging 55kms with a rider. Multiply this with the current numbers of horses in the Victoria Alps it becomes mind boggling, having our home ripped up. Our pristine flora is eaten and defecated on, and our fauna habitats destroyed, leaving our slow recovering sacred totems and environment traumatised and devastated with additional problems of erosion as well as hardened impacted soils. Then they urinate and defecated daily whenever it suits them.
3.57Noting the damage done by the presence of feral horses, and their origin in a colonial past, Jaithmathang expressed sympathy for the horses themselves, and stated that they are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time:
In saying this Jaithmathang are very saddened in our heart that the horse who has been used and abused and discarded and now having to pay the ultimate sacrifice for being on the wrong continent, at the wrong place, at the wrong time, mainly through the ignorance of an Australian society who see them as more iconic than us Jaithmathang human beings.
3.58Associate Professor Richard Swain, Indigenous Ambassador for the Invasive Species Council, described the anguish caused by the lack of effective management of feral horses in the Australian Alps:
It's 2023 and, for cultural reasons, we [the former NSW Government] are protecting feral horses within our national parks. It hurts me. It saddens me. It undoes what we could have been. We could have been a nation that had some connection to country. We could have been a nation that cared. There is a reason nobody probably drove across a river that's drinkable today. That's Australia's culture. We are protecting feral horses within the national parks under cultural and heritage values. It was a poem. It was a movie. The reality of the grazing era was not true. Grazing doesn't prevent blazing; it caused the blaze.
We have one of the highest extinction rates in the world. We've lost, I think, 17 species since I was born…I'm here to ask this of you, the Senate of this country. If this country is not our water, our soil and the species that evolved here then what is it? There is a reason when we get a new immigrant to Australia that they need to know Bradman's average but they're not asked to pick up some soil and commit to the responsibility of custodianship. That reason is we don't even expect it of ourselves, and it's time we changed…
This can't be about politics. If this isn't the decade of healing country it will be a decade of saying goodbye. We're going to need courageous political decisions...
Committee comment
3.59Through overgrazing, trampling and wallowing, feral horses are destroying vital habitat and food sources for critically endangered, endangered and vulnerable species protected at the Commonwealth and state levels. Feral horses could be the difference between survival and extinction for up to a dozen threatened species found only in the Australian Alps.
3.60As recognised in the National Heritage listing for the Australian Alps, this area is the site of historic gatherings of Indigenous peoples for ceremonies such as the bogong moth feasting, and the committee heard that Indigenous culture stretching 65,000 years has been ignored and disrespected through the increasing populations of feral horses. Sites used for ceremonies and gatherings are now not able to be used by Indigenous communities due to the damage caused by feral horses.
3.61Waterways, which not only provide vital habitat for the critically endangered corroboree frogs and threatened plant species but also provide drinking water into our catchments, are degraded by the hard hooves of feral horses. Some of the species relying on the immediate health of waterways in the Australian Alps include the critically endangered Stocky Galaxias, which are only found in one small waterway inside the NSW horse retention area.
3.62The quality of drinking water for a large portion of the Murray-Darling Basin is under threat from the high feral horse population in the Australian Alps. Australia is the driest inhabited continent on earth, and our water resources are precious and should be protected from pollution and damage from feral animals.
3.63The unmanaged presence of high populations of feral horses causes compounding damage, endangering native threatened species and increasing their risk of extinction. Further, it threatens unique Indigenous cultural heritage, and degrades vital water resources.
3.64The committee discusses the management of feral horses in the next chapter, including the NSW Government’s management plan to significantly reduce the numbers of feral horses in the KNP.
3.65Further committee comments and recommendations are made in Chapter 7.