THE feral horse population across the Australian Alps has exploded over the last five years from approximately 9190 in 2014 to 25,318 in 2019, according to a Feral Horse Aerial Survey conducted by the Australian Alps National Parks Cooperative Management Program this year.

The latest aerial program surveyed more than 7400 square kilometres in three large blocks across the Alpine, Snowy River and Kosciuszko National Parks and adjoining State Forest areas in Victoria and New South Wales.

According to a Parks Victoria statement, the survey “confirms the need for action and monitoring of the health of the high country nature and species.”

Dr Mark Norman, chief conservation scientist for Parks Victoria, said the feral horses are not a natural part of the Australian Alps and they continue to “cause damage and threaten some of our most special Australian wildlife and amazing places.”

Parks Victoria is committed to reducing feral horse populations and minimizing their damage to Victoria’s Alpine National Park, as outlined in their Feral Horse Strategic Action Plan 2018-2021.

Parks Victoria’s three-year management strategy outlines plans to trap, rehome or kill about half of the estimated 2300 brumbies from the Alpine National Park and the total eradication of the Bogong High Plains brumbies – an estimated population of about 100 horses.

But the plan has faced resistance from the Australian Brumby Alliance (ABA), a non-profit organization established to protect and retain moderate wild horse populations

In December 2018 the ABA filed a case in the Federal Court in Melbourne against Parks Victoria in seeking an injunction to prevent the culling of all Bogong High Plains horses on the basis of their heritage value, limited numbers and overstated negative impact on the environment.

The ABA alleges Parks Victoria needs approval from the Federal Minister for Environment Sussan Ley to implement the plan, or it will breach the Federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

Parks Victoria and the ABA have waited five months for the court to hand down its decision.

According to ABA president Jill Pickering the alliance doesn’t have a problem with Parks managing horse populations to a “sustainable level,” but it does “have a problem with the total eradication of a whole heritage population on the Bogong High Plains.”