The summer of 2023/2024 has been an eventful time in the campaign to remove feral horses from Kosciuszko National Park. Figures announced by the NSW government on 29th January show that 3,530 feral horses have been removed from Kosciuszko since the Plan’s commencement – by re-homing, removal to knackery, aerial and ground shooting, and shooting in yards. The biggest contributor to the removal total was ground shooting (1,022 horses) followed by re-homing (866 horses) and aerial shooting (822). The proportion of aerial shooting is likely to increase in coming months; the method was not approved by the NSW government until October 2023, after a consultation process.

The total of 3,530 removed since later 2021 is an interesting figure, given that brumby advocates have long claimed that there are no more than 3,000 horses in the Park, and visitors to the Park still report seeing large mobs of horses, with continuing and fresh damage to streams and wetlands.

A project by brumby advocates to do an aerial ‘independent re-count’ of horse numbers collapsed in early January, with the sudden withdrawal of the project’s statistician, Claire Galea, and many supporters requesting the return of the donations to fund the project. The reasons for the collapse were disagreements over methodology, and personality issues. The project has since been revived, though at time of writing (31 January) the actual re-count had not yet taken place. The Reclaim Kosci campaign published some commentary by ecologist Dr Don Fletcher on those parts of the project’s methodology that have been made public. Major failures in the methodology include the limited area of coverage – only the untreed areas of some of the plains in northern Kosciuszko, and its lack of any validated way to estimate feral horses not seen at the time of the count.

The NSW government also announced, in their 29th January statement, the areas of Kosciuszko National Park that will be closed for aerial shooting of feral animals – deer, pigs, and horses. The southern section will be closed for most of March, and the northern section from 4th April to 4th October. In both cases, parts of the Australian Alps Walking Track will be closed. Bushwalkers appear to be accepting these closures as inconvenient but necessary. The prospect of 2025 being the year in which walkers will have a better chance of finding a dung-free campsite, and can start to see recovery of the alpine meadows and bogs, is the light at the end of the tunnel.

Linda Groom, Volunteer Co-ordinator, Reclaim Kosci Campaign, Invasive Species Council (reclaimkosci.org.au/).