Page 3806 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 19 September 2018
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Namadgi National Park is part of the Australian Alps national parks, a collection of protected areas across the ACT, New South Wales and Victoria. Thousands of Canberrans and visitors flock to Namadgi each year, hiking the region’s 160 kilometres of walking trails and enjoying a natural wonderland right on our doorstep.
But Namadgi provides much more than a stunning landscape. These 106,000 hectares contain diverse wildlife and plant life, significant Indigenous and European cultural sites, and 80 per cent of Canberra’s drinking water. The Cotter River catchment is managed to protect our water supply, a challenge in itself. The restoration and protection of this area’s native ecology is paramount to the preservation of quality water.
We know the risks of feral horses in our country. Their hooves and their grazing habits can cause significant environmental damage. They disrupt soil, raze sensitive vegetation, destroy creek banks, spread weeds and spark erosion. This damage to alpine and subalpine environments threatens to push endangered animals and plant life to extinction.
This information is not new. Academics and environmental groups have long warned of the destruction caused by this introduced species. Don Driscoll, a professor in terrestrial ecology at Deakin University, who wrote about this issue for The Conversation, argued:
… large numbers of feral horses are incompatible with maintaining the ecological values of Kosciuszko National Park.
Namadgi will not be immune. Introduced pests like feral horses freely move across borders. It will take more than a slogan to turn the brumbies back. And it is not like we can build a wall and make New South Wales pay for it.
In the ACT feral horses will be particularly bad news. These animals have the potential to damage our delicate subalpine wetlands and bogs, particularly those of the Cotter River catchment, which provides much of Canberra’s water supply. Livestock, including horses, are known to carry a parasite that can cause gastroenteritis if it contaminates drinking water. Bogs are also home to the rare, endangered, and very cute, northern corroboree frog.
Managing feral horses in the ACT is part of a wider pest control program in Namadgi National Park that includes foxes, rabbits, pigs, wild dogs and goats. As I mentioned, the ACT parks and conservation service has a long history of working with its counterparts in New South Wales and Victoria to control feral horses. These efforts include the Australian Alps national parks cooperative management plan, a plan that has existed for more than three decades.
Our government remains committed to the ongoing work of the Australian Alps Liaison Committee. This body was formed to ensure that our parks and reserves are managed cooperatively to protect this area’s character, natural and cultural value, and
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