CANBERRA BUSHWALKING CLUB INC.
P.O. Box 160, Canberra City, A.C.T. 2601
The Hon. Lily d’Ambrosio MP
Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change
lilyd’ambrosio@parliament.vic.gov.au
31st January, 2018
Subject: Submission on Parks Victoria Feral Horse Strategic Action Plan
Thank you for the opportunity to put in a submission on the Parks Victoria Feral Horse Strategic
Action Plan (FHSAP).
Members of the Canberra Bushwalking Club are frequent visitors to Victorian National Parks.
We regularly organise lodge-based weeks at Hotham and other alpine resorts, during the
summer walking season. Our members walk along the Australian Alps Walking track in most
years, most recently in November-December 2017.
As frequent visitors, we have an active interest in promoting the parks’ considerable
environmental values, while ensuring that this is balanced with the humane control of its feral
horse population. The CBC supports the management of all feral animals and invasive plant
species from the park to the fullest extent possible.
Members have seen the damage caused to the Alpine National Park, Victoria’s rare and
delicate alpine environment, by invasive species of animals and plants. Members have also
experienced dangerous behaviours exhibited by herds of feral horses in National Parks,
including horses galloping through camp sites at night. The extensive presence of feral horses
in Victorian National Parks has become a factor in decisions by our Club’s walk leaders in
choosing destinations for extended visits. One leader recently commented, “The Cobberas are
an astoundingly beautiful area, but the creek banks and bogs were trampled by horses, and the
forest criss-crossed by their tracks. I don’t plan to make a return visit until the horse population
has been remove”.
In good precipitation years, the feral horse population expands, but in drought years feral horses
reduce native high forage plants to an extent that not only degrades the vegetation but also
leaves feral horses emaciated.
Our members are also concerned about the effect of feral horses on the availability of clean
drinking water. Feral horses contaminate water supplies through faecal contamination, posing a
significant health risk for the human population.
We recognise that a reasonable compromise needs to be made between the different values of
stakeholders. We think that the draft FHSAP has taken a step in the right direction towards
balancing these values and endorses its adoption and implementation. However, as vigorous
culling is needed, we remain sceptical that the use passive trapping, as the method of wild
horse culling, will achieve the immense task given that average trapping over the period 2007-
17 needs to be increased 10-15 times to meet the long term management objectives. The
method of aerial shooting, which has been demonstrated to be humane, cost effective and safe
for staff, needs to be employed to reduce wild horse numbers successfully.
While supportive of the FHSAP, the CBC feels that there is room for further refinement and
improvement of the draft plan and suggest that alternate methods be trialled and measured
across the noted metrics for their effectiveness. For example, while social attitudes may change
over time, the loss of a native animal species is irreversible; further substantiation of the link
between feral horses and the endangerment of native species such as the Smoky Mouse and
Broad-toothed Rat should be measured. European cultural values should be balanced with the
values held by Aboriginal people for Alpine National Park Victoria. Net feral horse numbers
should be measured with particular attention to natural reproduction rates and possible horse
incursions from New South Wales. Methods most effective in reaching goals, such as the
reduction to zero horses in Bogong High Plains and 1,200 horses in the Eastern Alps should be
adopted.
Importantly, the view of the CBC is that the FHSAP needs to include detailed information about
the budget and resources required in order to be successfully implemented and monitored. This
information is required, given the historically limited budget given to Victorian conservation
services and the higher cost of using culling methods other than aerial shooting.
It is clear from the extensive and systematic analysis commissioned by the Victorian
government, which has informed the preparation of the FHSAP, that the current strategy for
feral horse management is not effective. The CBC holds the strong view that the finalisation,
adoption and implementation of the FHSAP must be a high priority, as action is needed as soon
as possible to minimize the further spread of the feral horses and the related damage they are
causing to the Alpine National Park in Victoria.
It is not appropriate that reptiles, birds, small mammals and future generations of people inherit
a degraded environment that we could save. We look forward to seeing a new and more
effective feral horse strategy in the near future.
Yours sincerely
Michael de Raadt
President