Mountain cattleman’s plan to save brumbies from High Country cull

A contentious cull of hundreds of brumbies in Victoria’s Alpine Region is due to start today, but a mountain cattleman has a one-man plan to save the horses.

Parks Victoria has won a legal challenge to remove up to 400 feral horses, which the department says are causing environmental degradation in national parks, but the Australian Brumby Alliance has continued to fiercely oppose the cull.

Mountain cattleman Phil Maguire tomorrow plans to herd the wild horses in the Bogong High Plains to his property in Omeo.

“We’re going to go out into the high plains, where the brumbies are … and see if we can drive them in home to a sanctuary,” he explained to Neil Mitchell.

“We will keep going back until we’ve got as many as we can of the hundred that are up on the Bogongs, and we will shelter them at our place until Daniel Andrews is no longer Premier.”

Mr Maguire, who already has about 40 brumbies at his property, said he can shelter 100 more indefinitely.

“We will just feed them … and give them a reason to stay there,” he said.

“They don’t need fences. They’ll stay there once they’re there. We’ve got some there already.”

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