Feral Horse Poster – Cynthia Breheny’s work and imagination

Di Thompson, member, NPA NSW and NPA ACT

At the end of the first COVID year (December 2020), Gary Thompson and I visited Canberra’s Institute of Technology (CIT) exhibition of students’ major artworks.  We were there to see a unique poster designed and assembled by a friend and colleague, Cynthia Breheny with a special environmental message.  

Conservation groups boycott call for nominations for Wild Horse Community Advisory Panel

Leading conservation groups have today announced that they will be boycotting the NSW Government’s call for nominations for the Wild Horse Community Advisory Panel. To do otherwise would be to lend credibility to a process that over-rides the National Parks and Wildlife Act.

Kosciuszko – the destruction of a national heritage icon?

Dr Graeme Worboys, (Honorary) Associate Professor of the Fenner School for Environment and Society, Australian National University

NSW Deputy Premier and State National Party Leader John Barilaro’s 2018 Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heritage Legislation is the single greatest political and ideological undermining of the conservation and protection status of Kosciuszko National Park in its 75 year history. It has elevated a pest animal to be more important than Australian native animals and has established a legislative precedent that threatens the concept of all Australian protected areas and National Heritage listed properties.

Feral horses to receive greater protections than native fauna in Kosciuszko National Park

The National Parks Association of NSW expressed dismay at yesterday’s announcement that the NSW Government will introduce legislation that will allow feral horses to remain in Kosciuszko National Park.

A Plan To Protect Kosciuszko’s Water Catchments

Graeme L. Worboys, Adjunct Fellow, Fenner School of Society and Environment, Australian National University

Large numbers of the Wild Horse, a farm-animal escapee, are severely impacting the water catchment wetlands of the Australian Alps, including right across Kosciuszko National Park. In 2014, 35% of the Alps wetlands had been damaged. These high mountain wetlands are the very heart of the headwater catchment sources for our mightiest rivers, the Murray, Murrumbidgee and the Snowy and regrettably they are also a preferred grazing area for these heavy stock animals. Numbers of Wild Horses have grown from about 2,000 to more than 6,000 in just 11 years and they are causing great damage to the catchments. The NSW Government, in response to these threats has launched, in May 2016, a draft Wild Horse Management Plan for consultation … a plan, amongst other things, to protect the water catchments.

A plan to protect Kosciuszko’s water catchments

Large numbers of the Wild Horse, a farm-animal escapee, are severely impacting the water catchment wetlands of the Australian Alps, including right across Kosciuszko National Park. In 2014, 35% of the Alps wetlands had been damaged. These high mountain wetlands are the very heart of the headwater catchment sources for our mightiest rivers, the Murray, Murrumbidgee and the Snowy and regrettably they are also a preferred grazing area for these heavy stock animals. Numbers of Wild Horses have grown from about 2000 to more than 6000 in just 11 years and they are causing great damage to the catchments. The NSW Government, in response to these threats has launched, in May 2016, a draft Wild Horse Management Plan for consultation … a plan, amongst other things, to protect the water catchments.