About this publication
Kosciuszko National Park Horse Management Plan
December 2008
Kosciuszko National Park is the largest national park in NSW and one of the largest
conservation reserves in Australia. The Park was declared in 1944 and is now a UNESCO
Biosphere Reserve. It contains continental Australia’s highest mountains as well as a great
variety of outstanding scenery, natural features and plant and animal communities.
The National Parks and Wildlife Service (the Service), a division of the Department of
Environment and Climate Change, has a legal duty to protect native habitats, native fauna
and flora, geological features and wildlife within its reserves. We also have a responsibility
to minimise the impact of introduced species, including horses.
History of Horse Management in the Park
Control of horses in the Park began in the early 1970s with a licensed horse roping/brumby
running program, however public and Service concerns over the inhumane practice and
the adoption of the Plan of Management in 1982 resulted in the practice being banned. By
the late 1990s the environmental impacts from a growing horse population became
increasingly obvious, with new tracks, damage to stream and riverbanks, trampling of bogs
and damage to native vegetation.
Service began to prepare a horse management plan to protect the alpine area of the Park.
The plan was released and implemented in 2003.
In 2006 a Plan of Management for Kosciuszko National Park was formally adopted and
one of its objectives is to reduce the distribution and abundance of introduced animal
species found in the Park. The Plan of Management called for the exclusion of horses from
key areas and for a Feral Horse Management Plan to be prepared for the whole of the
Park. This plan is part of our response to that commitment.
Community Views
The Service knows that there is a wide range of views in the community about how the
horses in the Park should be managed. A Horse Management Community Steering Group
has helped to write this plan.
The Steering Group examined the range of horse management methods available,
including fertility control, fencing, shooting and capture and removal methods and some of
the issues associated with each of the methods in the document. After reviewing the
different methods, the Steering Group recognised that different techniques are best suited
to different situations depending on issues such as mob size, geography and season. The
Group agreed that as with any vertebrate pest program, a combination of different
techniques will give the most effective result.
Documents to download
- Kosciuszko National Park Final Horse Management Plan (PDF - 820KB)