| 词条 | Brumby shooting |
| 释义 |
Brumby shooting or 'brumbie shooting' is the practice of eradicating feral horses, or "brumbies" in Australia. It has been conducted since the 1800s, and continues into the present day. The term "brumby" was first recorded in the 1870s.[1] Reasons for brumby shooting include, but are not limited to: sport, to maintain pastoral stations, to reduce environmental damage caused by the horses, control disease, and to prevent possible road collisions. NuisanceFrom 1820 to 1860, the horse population in Australia increased a hundredfold from 3,969 to 431,525,[2] which was an increase of about 12.5% per year. It is not known when the first wild mobs appeared but once established feral horses would have increased at a similar or greater rate with numbers further boosted by escapees, old and rejected horses released into the bush. In 1840 it was reported that there were many horses running wild throughout the Botany colony.[3] In 1844, Ludwig Leichhardt "saw horses on the Dawson River, which was several hundred miles beyond the nearest station."[4] In 1843, it was noted that wild horses and cattle were becoming a foreign pests to New South Wales[5] and in 1850, "A NUISANCE of no slight present importance to the breeders of horses, and which will probably hereafter prove to be a serious drawback, unless some measure is taken for its abatement."[6] In response to this, the measure advocated was the culling of brumbies.[6] Moreover, some of these wild horses were offered at the horse bazaars but did not sell easily. In 1854, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that, "the sale-yards are full of miserable animals...Good horses always sell well; unbroken stock and scrubbers are of no use whatever"[7] There were wild horses in every district in the colony. In 1854 in New England, it was reported that there were thousands of wild horses abundant in the bush.[8] In 1860, 100,000 wild horses in NSW was regarded as an underestimate.[9] "Between the Rivers Darling and Lachlan...herds of cattle, and troops of wild horses..had emptied all the shallow water-holes."[10]; this was also reported in the neighbouring mountain regions[11] and in the Upper Shoalhaven.[12] By 1864, "some hundreds of wild horses [were seen] on the back blocks of the Karamba run" on the Murray[13] and down from Loxton to Swan Reach [14] The buildup of the wild horse population was not welcome. As noted in an article to the Editor of the Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal, the wild horses were described as being of "worthless character"[16] and one of the cause for a drop in the prices of reared horses[15] and a depletion in available grassing land[16][17] Alternative options were considered for the abundant wild horse population; for example, the horses were suggested to be "boiled down and converted into glue, tallow, leather, salt-beef, and other substances of exportable value."[18] Corruption of youthAs well as the problems mentioned above, there were other consequences. In his 1870 Report, Mr. Bruce, Chief Inspector of Stock for New South Wales said "The running of wild horses, is the initiation of many of our youth into the vile habit of duffing, which, next to drinking, is the most demoralising evil in the country districts".[19] A reference, possibly, to the instances of currency lads moving from brumby running to cattle duffing, horse stealing and then to bushranging (e.g. Frank Gardiner and Ben Hall (bushranger)) The children of free selectors were especially prone, "by planting poor families in places altogether out of the reach of religious or educational influences unless among the latter we include the "Brumby" hunting, and cattle duffing, which the youngsters of such families find so exciting, and to which they take so naturally."[20] NSW Impounding Act of 1865The Act assented to on 20th June 1865, included the clause: "28. Any occupant finding any unbranded cattle or horses above the age of two years trespassing on his land may destroy the same."[21] giving squatters and landholders the authority to destroy nuisance horses. Until then the only legal way to remove unwanted stock was to drive them to the nearest public pound.[22] Debate on the bill in the NSW Parliament as recorded in the SMH shows that parliament needed no convincing for this measure. "Mr ROBERTSON .... There were tens of thousands of wild horses and cattle in the country, .... It was well known that no animal cropped the grass shorter than a horse, and he was aware that there were from 1000 to 2000 wild horses in the vicinity of some runs, and of course a perfect nuisance to the owners of these runs..." "Mr DE SALIS ...He knew a run in the interior on which there were.. . more wild horses than there were cattle-three times as many. It was quite impossible to take these animals, and the only thing that could be done with them was to shoot them. It would be a good livelihood to some persons to be so engaged, and the stock so killed might be used for feeding pigs, or something of that sort. The wild horses did mischief in several ways. They led away tame horses and deteriorated the breed."[23] John Robertson (premier) was five times premier of NSW but at the time was Secretary for Lands and Leopold de Salis[24] represented the area around Queanbeyan. His electorate included what is now the north part of Kosciusko National Park and he lived at Cuppacumbalong. Pig feedThe 'Manaro Mercury' investigated the "feeding pigs" remark and reported: "A short time since we heard a settler of this district make the assertion that horses had become so valueless that they were only fit to feed the pigs upon. The statement, though rather a strange one, was entirely concurred in by those who heard it, and moreover seems to be the prevailing opinion in this district."[25] "These useless animals are often driven into the pounds, where they can be purchased at prices ranging from 6d to a few shillings. We know persons who turn these brutes to some account. One gentleman keeps an immense herd of pigs, which he feeds regularly on horseflesh. Weeds and foals are purchased by him at pound sales, and then shot for the benefit of his porcine stock."[26] Another account appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald in 1871[27] and in 1921 Mr J. Jardine son of Monaro pioneer William Jardine[28] recalling earlier days related - "the country was run over by wild horses, which were sold to feed pigs at 12 for a shilling."[29] Sport"A gentleman owning a large station on the Lachlan has lately invited a number of his friends to join him in a few days' sport on the station. It appears that the run swarms with wild horses, which it is absolutely necessary to destroy.... The sport is a novel one for the colony and no doubt will prove exciting to those who enjoy bush hunting."[30] In 1877 the papers gave an account of a bit of sport that could have been the inspiration for 'The Man from Snowy River (poem)'. "Last week Mr. J. R. Battye (well known as a fearless rider) was away spending some holidays, and a brumby i.e., wild horse hunt was got up on one of the stations. The party started, and soon espied a mob, with which they commenced operations, and off hunters and hunted went helter-skelter at a breakneck pace. Just as they started the horse that Battye was riding managed to get his bridle off, and left him powerless over the animal's actions; he only considered a moment, and then thinking it a pity to lose sport, stuck his spurs in, knowing that his horse would follow the wild ones, which it did, and being unchecked, "went at a rare bat" till it came up with the Brumbies. Battye, having a rifle, shot one. ..... The ground traveled over (three miles) was thickly timbered and full of holes; in fact, scarcely two square yards of solid ground, but, strange to say, the rider did not get a scratch, nor did his horse stumble once, and when asked if he did not feel alarmed, quietly said no, but called it a piece of 'glorious excitement'."[31] Station routine"These ranges that border the edge of the table land are always full of wild cattle and wild horses, and the numbers of both have so much increased of late years as not only to make them a nuisance, for this they have been for many years, but also to make many runs next to valueless. On many runs the men never go out without taking a rifle with them, to drop anything in the shape of wild cattle or horse flesh they may encounter, and a bull is never spared. As to breaking in the horses, for occasional lots of four or five are sometimes run in, it is just time thrown away, for they invariably prove out and out "scrubbers" and are never to be depended on."[32] The Indian marketAt the time there was a good market in India for New South Wales horses - called 'Walers'[33] from 1846 - but not for scrubbers ."The bulk of the shipment2 (for India) "are thoroughbred horses, selected from all the best studs in the colony, including some very superior colts from Messrs. Smith, of Lindenow, and Mr. Pearson, of Kilmany Park, a single animal of which costs the price of a mob of 'scrubbers'."[34] As noted by Yarwood, the breeding of Walers "could only be accomplished by people who owned roomy, well-bred mares, and had access to good Thoroughbred stallions".[35] Some inferior horses were shipped to India and threatened the high regard held for 'walers' at the time. Good horses were well received "but no buck-jumpers; one or two ship-loads of such brutes came up that a hue and cry was immediately raised against the Walers."[36] In 1890 there was again the warning that "The despatch of anything like scrubbers would, of course, spoil what would ultimately be a profitable enterprise."[37] From the start of the trade, only a small proportion of horses in Australia could meet the standards required and that situation did not improve. In 1933 "Colonel Steve Margetts, the doyen of Indian horse buyers, who has spent over a million pounds in Australia on remounts (said) 'In my last two trips to South Australia I have inspected over 1300 horses and purchased only six. There are plenty of horses about, but the high standard set by the Indian authorities limits the field considerably'.".[38] Yarwood has a similar story of a buyer finding only two out of two hundred and fifty horses meeting Indian army specifications and "of those, one was too old and the other unsound".[39] Scrubber to BrumbyAround 1862[40] the words 'brumbie' and 'brumby' started to appear replacing 'scrubber' which, until then as shown above, was in common use. In 1875 a correspondent felt it necessary to explain the name: "But, returning to 'brumbie'-shooting, — do your town-readers know what it is, — or who, or what is a 'brumbie'? It simply means a wild horse."[41] and in 1876 a comment - "a mob of scrubbers; or, as they have been called in the latter days, 'brumbies"[42] - suggests it was newly coined. Letters to the Sydney Morning Herald[40][43] in 1896 and an article in the Lithgow Mercury in 1938[44]) assert it was an aboriginal word locate its origin to the Barwon, Narran, Balonne, Nebina, Warrego and Bulloo rivers region. One of these letters[43] said that in this area the local aboriginal word for 'unbroken horses' was 'baroombie' pronounced with the "a" cut short. This letter also gives 'yarraman' as the local word for a broken-in horse for which there is corroboration[45][46] and adds some credibility. Also, in a vocabulary of the language of aborigines on the Weir and Moonie rivers (tributaries of the Barwon), the meaning of 'brumbi' is given as 'wild horse'.[47] Although it would have been compiled earlier this vocabulary is dated 1887, which presents the possibility that word crossed from english - the horse being relatively new to the aborigines. This possibility must have also occurred to the compiler, Mr James O'Byrne, and we should trust he was confident the word was an aboriginal invention. An alternative explanation for the origin of 'brumby' - that they were descendants of horses set free by a Sgt[48] (or - depending on the source - Private,[49] Lieutenant[50] or Major[51]) Brumby when he left NSW in 1804 for Tasmania - is less probable. As well as all reports being hearsay and no reports from the time having been produced - the earliest being 1896, it is unlikely horses would be set free when they could readily be sold with prices at the time ranging from "one hundred to one hundred and fifty pounds sterling for a common mare".[52] The number of horses is not given and several are implied, but even one would represent an immense amount of money to a sergeant in the NSW Corps. Then there is the question of how the word 'brumby' could go unrecorded for sixty years (cf. 'scrubber' and 'mustang'[53]) and then suddenly emerge in the NSW-Queensland border area. The first known mention of 'Brumbies' in print is in 1871 from Walgett, which is in this area, and it has the connotation of an inferior or worthless animal - "a fine grazing block, lightly timbered ... is suddenly metamorphosed into a mass of scrub, only fit for a mob of 'Brumbies".[54] Next mention - "like an ill-bred fellow, as he is, (he is only a brumby)"[55] - is from the Balonne River area and is in the description of a horse in the third race at the 1874 St. George Annual Races. The context implies that the brumby was regarded as an ill-bred horse. As it turns out the brumby won, so not all brumbies were worthless but mention of a horse being a brumby, which in the main were seen to be inferior, may have improved the betting odds. All references at the time equate 'brumbie' with a nuisance, weed or pest. Anthony Trollope,[56] in 1877, associated the euphonious name of "brumbies" with the shooting of the "nuisances". This was on his second visit to Australia. Writing about the slaughter of wild horses on his first visit[57] 'brumbies' is not mentioned, suggesting the word was not in use at that time in the districts he visited on that trip. The Brumby ShootersThe next reports of 'brumbies' in the newspapers are from brumby shooters giving descriptions of the shooter's life. "I am sick of the life of discomfort, hard work, and inadequate pay that most unmarried young bushmen lead. I don't want to remain, longer than I can help, a mere slayer of "brumbies" — getting up at dawn, toiling like a slave at unsavory work all day, and going to bed, worn out with fatigue, a little after dusk."[58] Followed by the possibly apocryphal account of a cockney boasting of his hunting prowess being asked: "Ahem! Sir! Pardon me! Have you ever shot a brumbie?" The article continues with a description of 'brumbie shooting' and concludes with this verse on the hardships of the horse-shooters life: There's plenty of "up in the saddle," no doubt; Such, oh swell! is the life that horse-shooters lead; Some little experience,—write me with speed, And " Your's ever," I'll always remain[59]. In 1875 brumby shooters still regarded their business as a "newborn calling". Twenty years earlier "anybody proffering his services to the 'bloated squatter' as an exterminator of, horses would probably have been regarded either in the light of a fitting candidate for a lunatic asylum, or as a person upon whom it behoved the limbs of the law to keep a sharp eye". And it required an adjustment to their values. "Of course I remember the time when I used to think the horse a 'noble animal'. Now I simply regard him as — 'ten bob', — that being the current value of his hide and hair. Yes, it seems very murderous and nasty work. Still, somebody must do it, or the squatters, very many of them, would soon be ruined. When I mention the notorious fact that upon one station alone in the district of Goondiwindi over 7,000 horses have been shot, and plenty still remain, the necessity will, I think, be apparent. So the legitimate 'brumbie shooter' is, I submit, a man who does some good in his generation."[60] The brumby shooters were soon busy in all parts of the country. "WAR OF EXTERMINATION-We understand that a war against the wild horses of Oxley commenced some time this week, and that about twenty of these unfortunate quadrupeds succumbed during the first day's engagement"[61] "On the E. side of the Bogan, since January, 1527 wild horses have been shot. The W. side is now to be taken, and it is believed that before the work is finished over 3000 in all will have been shot."[62] "That there is an immense number of wild horses in New South Wales is shown by the fact that Mr. Ryrie, on one of his runs in the Monaro district, killed no less than 1400 in about two years and a half."[63] Mr Ryrie was Alexander Ryrie, owner of Micelago Run, later an MLA and MLC in the NSW Parliament and father of Granville Ryrie, Commander of the 2nd Light Horse Brigade and ANZAC Mounted Division in Palestine. R. D. Barton, uncle of A. B. Paterson,[64] reminisced: "I think one thing will strike anyone who may read it, and that is the extraordinary rapidity with which the lower animals go back to what they were when they came out of the ark when once they are let go wild. In a few years, say, ten, the wild horses on Boree were very numerous, and a great number of them very inferior, though they had been bred, as I mentioned previously, from a few of the best stock mares and horses that ever came from England. I think though that probably my wild horses were a cut above most of the wild horses that at that time were a pest to Australia, and utterly valueless, as they remained for many years. The last of the horses in which I was interested were shot for their skins, and some boiled down, so they literally, as well as figuratively, 'went to pot."[65] Between Gloucester and Stroud "in 1872 or 1873 Edward Corbett and William Ellis used Avon Creek as a camp. They had a contract from the [Australian Agricultural] Company destroying the wild horses that overrun the country. They shot 1,500 brumbies on the Gloucester run. They were paid 1/- per head for every horse shot and retained the hides and hair, which they sent to Sydney for sale."[66] "From the mountainous country about Oberon, Shooter's Hill, and Porter's Retreat, 25,000 horse hides were sent to Sydney in a few years by two brothers named Green. The best of the animals were driven to the city sale-yards and sold for a few shillings a head. The carcasses of the slaughtered brumbies were boiled down and fed to pigs. The rugged country about the upper parts of the Clarence and Richmond rivers was for generations an extensive brumby haunt. Every selector who had a fairly fast hack, and wanted cheap horses, at odd times made long excursions into the brumby territory. Young fellows from town also went out on Sundays and holidays in pairs and troops to hunt wild horses. Brumby hunting was a favourite pastime of the period, and the shooting and skinning of horses in a good many parts of the country provided a living for numerous professional hunters. Many thousands a year were killed on a single run on the Dawson River. This slaughter for hides, worth then 6s. each, was in full swing while the writer was there in 1895. Over 8000 were trapped and shot at Eurombah in a short summer season. The animals roamed mostly in dense brigalow country, and were regarded as a nuisance by the local squatters."[67] "Another extensive brumby run was in the rough country at the head of the Macleay River, the greatest number being on Walra station. The man who wiped them out was Ben Supple, one of the crack riders and hunters who made that rough region famous for its horsemen in the days when it was all big cattle-runs."[68] In the district around Red Hill Station - the setting for the poem 'On Kiley's Run'[69][70] - "as a last resort to get rid of these pests, the rifle was brought into play, and Mr. Geo. Rankin spent many an hour sniping them from the best vantage points on the hill. This, with the increased settlement that was creeping around them, ultimately finished the work, and to-day the wild horses on Bald Hill are a memory only."[71] In Queensland, "The Burnett squatters will be sorry to hear that Mr. J. Nixon, the well-known and crack brumby shooter, has broken up his camp after eighteen months of wild-horse shooting", says the "Eidsvold Reporter, "Mr. Nixon states that he and his party were exactly seventeen months shooting wild horses on Rawbelle station, and during that time they shot 3200 head, and they were one month on Culcralgie station, where they shot 292 head, making a total of 3492 destroyed in eighteen months. It is a pity, for the sake of the Burnett district, that Mr. Nixon has broken up his camp, for the getting rid of such a curse as wild horses amongst the cattle has been a great boon to the squatters. A horse eats as much grass as a bullock, and is of no value whatever."[72] By 1924 "Brumbies had become such a pest on Cape York Peninsula that wholesale shooting had had to be resorted to, to deal with them. In two months recently, Mr Massey and his son accounted for 964 head, and Mr. Massey stated that there were easily a couple of thousand more running wild".[73] In 1927 "there were wild horses, by the thousand in the Territory. One brumby shooter on Alexander Downs had shot 2,000 in a season. The "bag" was not so very profitable, for he received only one shilling a head for the beasts."[74] In 1930 the Queensland government finally noticed the 'BRUMBY MENACE'[75] and introduced a bill to amend the Diseases in Stock Act. The Minister, noting that "on many holdings there were as many as 5000 brumbies", said that in the amendment "provision was made for the destruction of such useless animals".[75] The 'provision' was limited to four months a year and to districts by Proclamation published in the Gazette.[76] The Inspector of Stock in Townsville commented: "there has been an immense increase in Queensland in the number of horses without known owners" and the Amendment Act would "enable landowners to get rid of the objectionable "brumbies" which invade their areas, and upset their watering places."[77] Some of the increase in horse numbers were the "offspring of the animals left behind by the soldiers"[78] when the Beerburrum Soldier Settlement was abandoned - "The horses, which included draughts and roadsters, now number several hundred head, and have been causing much trouble to the farmers in the district."[79] Proclamations naming the Bowen, Maryborough and Townsville,[80] Roma,[81] Toowoomba and Rockhampton,[82] stock districts were soon gazetted with the newspapers reporting "Open Season"[80][81][82] on brumbies. Among the districts named in the following few years were Clermont and Springsure,[83] Longreach and Barcaldine,[84] Cairns and Cooktown,[85] Beerburrum,[79] Boulia,[86] Charters Towers and Capo River,[87] and Collinsville.[88] In 1931: "Two or three years ago breeders in the north were destroying horses by the thousand, but today they are buying blood stallions to raise a better class of horses for Indian remounts, for which there is a good demand.... Sir Sidney Kidman is satisfied that the horse is coming into his own again. He said that about 6,000 horses had died either as a result of the drought or had been killed on his stations in the north. The wild and unwanted horses were a nuisance. They ate a lot of feed during the dry years and led away the quiet station horses. Another station owner had killed between 4,000 and 5,000 horses. A large number of Brumbies and other useless animals were wiped out in this way, and as a result, they were now able to breed a better class of horse. During the past 12 months, he had sent between 12 and 14 blood stallions and eight or nine draught stallions to his stations."[89] In 1935: "Recently brumbies were overlanded to the Adelaide market, where, apparently, there is a demand for light horses; but the percentage of brumbies worth while sending to market is very small. Out of 130 run by one party in western Queensland, only 37 were considered good enough to send for sale. The others were given bullets".[90]" In 1936: "..the Government once paid as much as £1 each for brumby tails, and the owners of Nokatunga still pay 2/6 a head for all brumbies killed on their station. The Brumby is the mongrel horse of the Australian plains. Constant inbreeding has caused degeneration, and today these nomad animals lack the courage and the stamina essential in a station horse. The popular fallacy that they are a wild band of beautiful horse flesh is kept alive only by fiction... BRUMBY running, besides providing an exciting form of sport, often proves highly remunerative for the riders. The best animals are kept for hacks and pack horses, the mongrels are shot, and the remaining "sellers" are shipped to the markets, where they often bring fair prices.".[91] In 1945: "A total of 1,700 brumbies killed on only two stations (Durham Downs and Karmona Stations in South-west Queensland) in such a short period gives us big figures—quite big enough to emphasize the very serious nature of the menace that has grown up in this area over the last couple of decades.... At Nappa Merrie Station, on Cooper's Creek, wild horses are menacingly numerous. A few months ago, Mr. E. Conrick, whose late father was the district's pioneer settler, said that he had about 7,000 cattle on the run and estimated that there were about 10,000 wild horses." and added - "these wild horses that are of no use to anyone and if not coped with may ultimately mean the virtual end of big stock rearing in this area".[92] In 1947: "Tens of thousands of brumbies are ravaging pastoral properties in South Australia and southwest Queensland. Although thousands have been shot by graziers, they are still multiplying at an alarming rate. Mr. E. A. Brooks, a leading pastoralist, advocated the use of strafing planes to kill off the animals. He said that Brumbies were becoming a national problem. Their ravages and those of donkeys, camel and wild dogs were causing untold loss to pastoralists. Many owners were considering leaving country where the pests were out of control. Some had already moved out. On Clifton Hill station, 20 miles on the South Australian side of Birdsville, 4000 or 5000 Brumbies have been shot without overcoming the problem. There were as many to be dealt with still. Mr. Brooks advocated using planes because, he said, they could reach brumbies' haunts inaccessible to hunters using horses or buckboards. While Brumbies were left to breed peacefully in these remote parts the problem would remain. Most brumbies slaughtered now were ambushed at drinking places, but there were not enough men to cover all bores, springs, soaks, and streams where they drank. The wild horse problem was also acute at Oodnadatta. One station 60 miles south of Oodnadatta had 4000 to 5000 Brumbies. On an adjoining property 10,000 had been shot in 10 years, and plenty were left. Mr. Walter Kidman, another prominent pastoralist, said that many stations were badly infested with Brumbies, particularly in south-west Queensland. A recent report advised him that 3000 had been shot on Tanbar, 2800 on Durham Downs, 1500 on Nappa Merrie, 1000 on Marmona, and 500 on Nocktaunga. Mr. Ted. Pratt, pastoral inspector for S. Kidman and Co., said..." In the last 18 months, 8,000 Brumbies had been shot on a 150-mile front of the Cooper River. They had eaten enough feed for 16,000 cattle".[93] There was some criticism of Mr Brooks' strafing proposal[94][95] "from a group of ignorant people who know nothing of the subject".[96] One critic, did later admit "that there are some brumbies which have to be destroyed".[97] A few years later helicopter shooting would show this proposal was prophetic as well effective and economical. "When a coordinated control program is running in the district with numerous properties involved, animals are culled with the use of aerial marksmen shooting from a Robinson R22 helicopter. Marksmen are fully trained and accredited for the task, using .308 calibre semiautomatic rifles. The use of aerial marksmen allows all animals in a mob to be humanely culled, as the helicopter is able to remain with the mob, ensuring every animal is culled."[98] In 1949 the eastern suburbs of Sydney were invaded. "Waverley Council should ask police to shoot "brumbies" that had damaged gardens and fences in Vaucluse", Alderman K. B. Armstrong said last night. He presented a petition signed by 117 ratepayers in the Diamond Bay area, asking the Council to remove straying horses. Alderman Armstrong said Council had no pound. "Something should be done about these 'brumbies'," he added. "We should shoot them, enlist the aid of the police, or do something."[99] In 1950: "North Queensland cattle properties are being overrun by wild horses, and brumby shoots are a popular pastime. Property owners are not worried by a regulation which states that permission must first be obtained and a muster held before shooting can begin. They say that it is hard enough to get a bead on the brumby without having to muster it. Tails and manes cut from the Brumbies are sold to pay for the ammunition used. Early this month the Royal Australian Navy called tenders for 13,440 lb. of horse-hair."[100] In 1951 Brumbies were still a major problem around Oodnadatta. "One stockowner said that experienced men for wild horse hunting were difficult to find but he hoped that increased prices of horsehair and hides would attract hunters to the area. Suitable high-velocity ammunition is reported to be very scarce and it is understood that Government aid in obtaining supplies is to be sought.".[101] Later that year in the same area the versatile Mrs Scobie went "to Adelaide and bought 11,500 .303 cartridges, and with some of these she and her husband and Neil McLean shot 4,000 wild horses."[102] In the 1960s, "intensive culling by cattlemen with high country grazing leases early in the .. decade reduced the feral horse populations in some areas by up to 50 % (Rodgers pers comm)."[103] In 2014 in the Northern Territory, "Donkeys are a greater problem to us simply due to numbers. We have professional shooters that come in once a year and carry out a program in which they GPS every single animal they shoot and check every animal shot is actually dead, they also give us a written report on exactly what they have shot. We may advise them to shoot pigs, donkeys, wild dogs, horses, and buffalo."[104] In 2018 in the Northern Territory and Western Australia, where the majority of the estimated 300,000 feral horses in Australia can be found, they are routinely shot from helicopters as part of aerial culling that also targets other introduced species such as pigs, buffalo and donkeys.[105] Motor vehicle accidents involving horses have been occurring at least since the 1920s[106] The Australian Road Deaths Database doesn't resolve to accidents involving feral horses, but fatalities[107] and near misses[108][109] sometimes make the news and a study of crashes in Australia in the 1990s, found that in 5 years, 24 fatalities involved "stock" (which possibly includes horses) and 13 involved a "horse/large animal".[110] Feral horses were shot after two fatalities occurred within 2 to 3 kilometers of each other on the Bruce Highway near the Clemant State Forest north of Townsville in 2015. Extracts from the Coroner's Report[111] give a history of events leading up to the accidents: Then following the deaths. As well as the tragedy of two deaths, the average cost of each road fatality to the Australian economy is over A$4 million.[113] The best estimate of the annual contribution of the horse industry to GDP in Australia was A$6.3 billion in 2001[114] and exotic diseases pose a serious threat as shown by the 2007 Australian equine influenza outbreak. Despite an immediate freeze on horse movements, the disease appeared on over 100 properties in a 10-week period. Fortunately it did not reach the feral horse population along the riding trails where domestic and feral horses overlap. Outbreaks of Equine rhino pneumonitis and equine metritis in 1977[115] further showed that despite Australia's isolation and strict quarantine measures exotic diseases can still enter. Feral horses are also a threat to the beef and dairy industries. Wild horses were shot as part of the campaign in NSW to eradicate cattle tick,[116][117] the most serious external parasite of cattle in Australia.[118] "They were an 'absolute menace'", Mr. B. G. Yabsley, of Tabulam, said. "No policy of tick eradication could possibly be undertaken unless the animals were cleaned out.".[119] All of NSW is now a cattle tick free area.[120] Horses can also carry brucellosis[121] and "during the 1980's, as part of the Brucellosis-Tuberculosis eradication program, thousands of horses were removed from stations throughout the far north".[122] Under the same program, helicopter shooting was also conducted to remove animals that could not be mustered and despite efforts of activists to end the culling[123] internationally acceptable freedom from Brucellosis was achieved in 1989[124] "Feral horses impact on the environment by changing the structure and composition of vegetation, trampling and fouling water sources, causing soil compaction and erosion and competing with native species for resources".[125] As shown above the early pastoralists noted the damage, from fouling waterholes to cutting up a run. Elyne Mitchell, although referring to sheep in the NSW Snowy Mountains, could have also been describing horses when she wrote, (they) "should never be permitted to graze on these mountains. Their close eating habits leave the soil unprotected and their small hooves beat down the springy bogs, making the surface impervious to moisture",[126] as, per unit area, a horse hoof can exert over twice the pressure of a sheep hoof.[127] Some impacts are more subtle. "The continual preferential use of the grassland and heath habitats is likely to eventually alter their ecology through selective grazing and the unequal distribution of dung throughout the region".[128] "In Carnarvon National Park, feral horses damage Indigenous cultural heritage sites by raising dust and by licking and eating the artwork (Weaver, 2007)"[129] Control of feral horses in National Parks has been compromised by politics. An overview of the history is summarised in 'Proceedings of the National Feral Horse Management Workshop – Canberra, August 2006'[130] Whether the brumby should be considered a cultural icon or a pest is debated. [131] Some regard it as a pest, like the rabbit, where there has been various campaigns to eradicate them over history, continuing to the present day. The brumby has been shot, poisoned[132] and jugulated.[133] The heritage value claim was tested when conformation data and genetic markers from 16 selected horses from the Guy Fawkes brumbies and 20 horses classified as 'walers', were sampled and assessed by scientists from Sydney and Kentucky universities "to test the claim that horses in the GFRNP have sufficient genetic uniqueness to warrant them being conserved on that basis". The result was that "neither Guy Fawkes horses nor Walers are genetically unique to any significant extent" and were probably the product of the "more-or-less continual introduction of “outside” blood".[134] This was nothing new. In a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald 150 years earlier, "A. B." wrote "our horse stock generally has become a thoroughly mongrel race." and an "example of the pernicious effects of cross breeding."[135] More recently Kennedy noted that "in attempting to fix cross-bred types, the selection of the breeding stock was .. crucial."[136] This does not happen in the wild but can be achieved at a stud farm. "A. B.", as a later paper[137] shows, was undoubtedly Alexander Bruce, the NSW Chief Inspector of Stock and a "thoughtful breeder and horse expert."[136] The letter was part of a debate at the time, of a proposal by horse-breeders, for the government to levy a tax on brood mares to raise funds for "encouragement of improved breeding" and the "destruction of wild and worthless animals".[138] These were the breeders supplying the original Walers to the Indian market. As of the present, it is speculated that there are over 1 million feral horses in Australia.[139] Gibson, C. (2015) The Myth of the ‘Sacred Brumby’. Unpublished paper. spiffa.org (accessed 3 December 2018). |
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