Frustrated by a raging political debate on the fate of 7000 feral horses, the Paruku IPA Rangers are taking matters into their own hands to solve the problem.
While the Government and animal liberation groups publicly debate plans to remove feral horses from an Indigenous Protected Area surrounding Lake Gregory, the Paruku Rangers are on the ground working to alleviate the damage the horses are causing to the country.
Paruku IPA head ranger Jamie Brown and his colleagues Steven Kopp, Jarvis Fernandez and Bradley Kopp are embarking on projects that will produce an economic enterprise while looking after country.
“We want to see our country rich again,’’ Mr Brown says.
“At the moment we have 7000 lawn mowers destroying our country. The horses are eating the native grasses and causing significant damage.
“The horses are grazing the grass, they are stampeding on birds’ nests on the ground and are destroying burial sites where our old people have been laid to rest. They are charging the lake and degrading the land around the edges.
The ranger group, based in the remote community of Mulan in the Great Sandy Desert is charged with the responsibility to look after country, which includes Lake Gregory (Paruku) – a world-renowned wetland that attracts 50,000 species of migratory birds from across the globe.
The feral horses are detrimental to the on-going management of country but are pivotal in creating economic enterprises for the ranger group, which is looking to use them to achieve their vision for country – which includes reducing the feral horse problem, creating business projects and tourism opportunities while ensuring the country is managed and looked after.
Mr Brown says the group, in unison with the Indigenous Protected Area (Aboriginal National Park) is taking a two-pronged approach to tackling the feral horse issue, which includes removing them from country while creating a business enterprise. But their efforts have not come without challenges.
The group has had to deal with an emotive political campaign from animal liberation group Save the Horses, which made redundant many of the solutions proposed to manage the feral horse problem including selling the meat for use in French restaurants and culling the horses.
Intense public pressure on the fate of the horses forced Deputy Premier Kim Hames to meet with Traditional Owners in Mulan earlier this month and work to find a way forward – in which the feral horse problem, could be solved while protecting the country from damage.
Paruku IPA Coordinator Shirley Brown said the meeting with Dr Hames and representatives from the Department of Indigenous Affairs had been constructive and was a sign of things moving forward.
“We are finally getting to have an input into what is going to happen on our country,’’ she said.
“The IPA will work with DIA to develop a five-year plan of management which includes keeping some of the horses in order to start an economic enterprise to bring money into the community, and also to create training programs in horsemanship for the young people.
“But the best thing is that the management plan to alleviate the problem of the feral horses will not only benefit the community, but also save the lake from the massive environmental damage the horses are creating.’’
Dr Hames has committed to saving as many of the horses as possible and will look to re-house some of the horses while some of the older and sick animals will be destroyed.
Jamie Brown said his group was ahead of the game, and out of frustration at a lack of progress on solving the feral horse problem, had started mustering up some of the horses and breaking them in months ago.
“We have to handle them every day. We have to get them used to humans, slowly put weight on them, lay across them, pat them down until they’re quiet,’’ Mr Brown says.
“We walk them around with the lead, then slowly, slowly put the saddle on them and then after that we jump on and it’s a bit of rodeo then.
“It takes three-weeks before they become tame.’’
This project, Mr Brown says, is just the first step in the Paruku Rangers achieving their big picture vision which includes creating an economic enterprise through tourism projects and business opportunities, while working to manage the feral horse problem and look after country.
“Ultimately some of these horses will become ranger horses and maybe one day in the future, once the horses are quiet, we would like to do adventure tours for tourists – where we would take them on trail rides to the edge of the lake and around our country,’’ he says.
“It’s just a vision at the moment. We need to create some economic opportunities first so we can be self-sufficient instead of relying on funding.’’
