Country News spoke to a range of people — all passionate about the internationally recognised Ramsar-listed site — about these issues and will share their views over the next three weeks.
Today we start with the brumbies.
Peter Newman was born in Barmah National Park before it was even a state forest, on his parents’ old farm.
He learned to ride in the forest and mustered cattle as a young man.
Mr Newman now maintains his connection to the forest as the president of the Barmah Forest Preservation League.
He believes the brumbies should be removed from the park.
“They said there was over 500 horses in there — that’s a load of bullshit. I’ve never seen the numbers that high, life is simply too hard for them in there,” Mr Newman said.
“Foals die from mosquitoes, they starve when the floods come and these are rough horses we’re taking about, not majestic or rare at all.
“They come from draught horses let loose after the tractor came along and a bunch of trotters forgotten about when their owner died.”
The Yorta Yorta Nation Aboriginal Corporation (YYNAC) co-manages Barmah National Park with the Victorian Government.
In 2020, the Yorta Yorta Traditional Owner Land Management Board released the Joint Management Plan for Barmah National Park, which laid out their intentions to remove the feral horses and build exclusion fences to protect cultural heritage areas.
The backlash was intense.
Goulburn Valley Environmental Group president John Pettigrew was involved in the creation of the national park, and GVEG has long supported removing feral animals from the park — particularly the horses.
Mr Pettigrew said some brumby activists had been quite nasty.
“They are funded from overseas and highly organised. They’ve said some terrible things and personally attacked Monica (YYNAC executive officer),” he said.
“It’s created an environment where people are scared to speak their minds.
“A lot more farmers and locals support getting rid of the brumbies than you realise — they call us about it — but they never openly support it.”
Mr Pettigrew said horses, pigs and deer caused untold damage to the Ramsar wetlands inside the national park.
“They trample everywhere and bog the wetlands up.
“But there is weariness inside the government to do anything. The fact the horses are still there over a decade later says enough.”
The Barmah Brumbies Preservation Group (BBPG) is a local organisation that raised $90,000 to establish a 120-hectare haven for the brumbies on a Yielima property neighbouring the forest.
In 2019, when BBPG was at its most active, the members were pushing for a herd of 120 horses to be allowed to roam the forest permanently while being managed by a dedicated group.
BBPG’s Murray Willaton said claims the horses were destroying the threatened Moira grass plains were unfounded.
“The brumbies play no role in the decline of Moira grass; that is due to unseasonal flows,” Mr Willaton told Country News in 2019.
“These brumbies have a strong heritage value ... if we eradicate them we lose them forever.”
In 2019, Parks Victoria released a plan to cull the feral horses inside Barmah National Park, but to date this cull has not happened.
Next week: Moira grass and environmental water use.
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