A recent aerial shooting operation within Murray Valley National Park has reignited local residents' concerns about the remaining Barmah brumby population post floods.
Picnic Point caravan park owner Brad Davidson is accustomed to the sound of gunshots, helicopters flying overhead and the smell of dead animals left to rot in the forest after an aerial pest control operation.
Being situated in the Murray Valley National Park, Mr Davidson and neighbouring business owners would typically receive a phone call from the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Services (NPWS) prior to conducting their next operation.
But when the shooting began early last week, it took Mr Davidson and his guests by surprise.
“You could hear the helicopter going and then you'd hear the gun go off,” he said.
“It was like a cannon … and then it'd go quiet and then you hear the shooter go again.”
Local residents had shared photos of the warning signs at the entrance to the forest on social media.
The signs stated Murray Valley National Park was closed and to not enter while the aerial pest control operation (feral animal shooting) was in progress from 22 to 27 May.
NPWS told the Pastoral Times that it was carrying out “the biggest feral animal control program ever delivered on the national park estate”, with more than 100,000 feral animals removed in the last three years.
“Aerial shooting has more than doubled, and aerial baiting has increased fivefold,” a NPWS spokesperson said.
“These control measures are needed to reduce the impact of feral predators following the drought and 2019-20 bushfires.”
NPWS said the aerial pest control operation recently completed within Murray Valley national park targeted deer, pigs, foxes and goats, and that a similar pest control operation in Yanga National Park is currently in its final stages.
While feral horses were not targeted as part of the NPWS’s operation, local residents were concerned they would be.
President of the Barmah Brumby Preservation Group Julie Pridmore posted on the group’s Facebook page the day before the aerial shooting begun on May 19.
“Well folks I think we are in trouble. Parks and police have removed all campers from Moira side of Barmah and are preventing people from driving in and when approached and asked by myself today the Police confirmed they are shooting brumbies from Mathoura down to Barmah,” she wrote.
“I’m suspecting there will be shot horses in Barmah, so we will stay vigilant and wait and see.”
Others also expressed concerns it was the horses being targeted on social media platforms.
Mr Davidson said he could hear the “constant sound of the gun shooting” the entire week of the operation.
“Everything around us was closed, all the gates were closed, even down near Moira Station - that was closed down there.”
Most of the brumbies live in the Barmah National Park, on the Victorian side of the Murray River which separated the two forests.
Their population is believed to have been significantly reduced by the floods, with only 100 estimated to have survived.
Mr Davidson said he and his wife, Paula, have lived on site at their caravan park for 22 years and would often see up to 10 brumbies from their home on the other side of the river.
But he hasn’t seen one since the caravan park reopened on December 16.
“Usually we see them, but we have not seen them,” Mr Davidson said.
“There's no horses in New South Wales, they’re all gone.”
Mr Davidson, who is also a hunter himself, said he thinks it’s a waste to leave all the dead animals on the ground.
“You don't go out shooting, and then just go shoot a whole heap of deer and just leave it sitting there for the sake of it,” he said.
“You've got people that have got the skills to go and shoot or whatever, and they’d do it for free.
“They take the food, they take the carcase away and they eat it, or they take it home for dog meat.
“They don't just leave it on the ground. That's what frustrates the hell out of me, and that's why I just don't get it.”
Mr Davidson said he understands why feral animal populations need to be controlled, but does not agree with shooting horses.
“I reckon it’s a beautiful thing to see them in the forest, and to go through and shoot them all, it’s just cruel and wrong,” he said.
NPWS said it does not operate within Victoria, including Barmah.
Both Parks Victoria and the NPWS have said they do not currently cull horses from the air in any national park.
NPWS confirmed the Moira precinct of the MVNP was only closed during the operation for the safety of visitors, and was intended to help other species thrive.
“The aerial pest control operation recently completed was to protect many of the 60 threatened native animal species and 40 threatened plant species known to occur in the park,” a NPWS spokesperson said.