Saving Australia’s wild horses

Press, 15 July 1982, Page 17

Saving Australia’s wild horses

An. interesting battle. is ; going on to-save what 'is believed to be the only herd of brumbies (wild horses) in Australia south of the Tropic, of Capricorn. ; The • herd roams a southwestern Australian Capital Territory area known as Smokers Gap, beyond the Cotter Dam, a major source of Canberra’s water supplies. There have been reports. that - the Minister: for - the Capital . Territory. Michael . Hodgman, has been consider-,: ing having the herd extermiated, or caught and trans- -: ferred elsewhere,. because the’ horses allegedly are damaging the natural environment. However, he has . denied this and said that the ■>-

: intention is only to control the herd’s numbers. . ■ A number of A.C.T. groups, including the Royal Society . for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, argue , that the herd of about 80 horses should be left alone, that the damage they do is minimal, and that they have considerable value as a tourist attraction. Many tourists who would have to drive thousands of . miles otherwise to see brumbies, go to Smokers Gap to get a glimpse of the herd. ■ : . The R.S.P.C.A sent a noted pony breeder and horse authority, Mrs Lorna Howlett, to the area and she reported that the horses, in -spite of ~~ars ’ of indiscriminate

breeding and inbreeding; are healthy and could be categorised as “a good stand- . ard of equine.” Even graziers in adjoining New South Wales districts into which the herd roams have made a collective plea that the horses be . spared because they “form part of the heritage of this area.” The graziers point out. that the brumbies have been in the area for more than. 100 years. , This last argument is backed up by Mr. Robert Campbell, a fifth-generation member of tbe family which originally settled in the A.C.T. before it . was created

the federal territory and whose original home now forms part of the Royal Military College at Duntroon. Mr Campbell believes the herd first was reported in the area between 1840-50. He recalls that a friend of his father at the turn of the century tried to train bne of the brumbies as a. stockhorse, without success. He doubts the value of a plan to cull the herd and to use brumbies caught as rid-ing-club horses because, he says, their behaviour is unpredictable. In his view they are better left as a tourist attraction, and a subject of study by animal scientists.

From

KEITH HOOPER,

in Canberra V