Easter protest planned against NSW lock down of Kosciusko National Park for brumby shooting

Indiscriminate shooting of heritage listed brumbies at Kosciusko which were hit in legs and bodies and left to die in previous shootouts

By TONY MOBILIFONITIS
ONCE upon a time National Parks were considered places where all Australians could freely wander and enjoy with few restrictions – that was until the eco-fascists and environmental zealots took over.

The prime example of this is Kosciusko National Park, NSW, which occupies a vast area of Snowy Mountains high country between Canberra on the north, the eastern Victorian border on the south and the city of Albury-Wodonga on the west.

The eco-fascists, given license by NSW Labor and Green politicians and environmentalist public servants, plan to eliminate most of the magnificent brumbies that roam around the park by shooting them from helicopters during a lock down of the northern half of the park from April 4th. But the Rural Resistance group is on to this and doing what its name suggests.

Tumbarumba local Dick Roberts says anyone supporting the cause to stop the seven-month lockout should join a protest this Easter weekend is the last weekend that the park will be open the protest will be held on this weekend being Easter Weekend.

“The main day for the protest will be on Easter Sunday at 11am with everyone meeting at the intersection of the Port Phillip Fire Trail and Long Plain Road. However, I encourage anyone that wants to maintain the protest for the duration of the Long weekend to do so,” Roberts posted on the Rural Resistance social media page.

“I encourage everyone to come, regardless if you’re on foot, in a vehicle, on a horse, on a bike or have your fishing boat or caravan with you. Bring you signs, bring your flags, however, rude and unacceptable behaviour towards anyone will not be tolerated. Lets do this together and do it right. We all want the same results.”

Roberts says the protest message will be loud and clear: “Stop the lockout. We own it, you don’t.”

But the NSW Parks and Wildlife Service, has increasingly treated public visitors to the park like Australians visiting a foreign nation with hefty vehicle charges, prohibition on photographing of park staff, no pets and no smoking – except at designated resorts.

People who live in the park vicinity have long opposed shooting of the horses, which they say serve a useful purpose in eating down grasses that would otherwise be a serious fire hazard.

Trafalgar (Vic.) man Lenny Hillbrick, posted on the Rural Resistance Facebook page: “Yes bring back the cattle. I remember going to Dargo as a kid camping and the cows are the best lawn mower out, as kids we could kick a football out from camp, you can’t do that anymore grass is too long and a hell of a mess.” But don’t worry Lenny, the next big fire will clean it all up.

Property owners around the park have a long tradition of life on the land in livestock farming, forestry and timber milling, fruit crops and wine grapes. That tradition goes back to the legendary high country brumbies and horsemen immortalised in Banjo Paterson’s Man from Snowy River.

But true to form, the neo-Marxists inhabiting the NSW Parliament and public service want to expunge that history and turn it into distant mythology. They harbor the delusion that the Snowy Mountains can be turned into some sort of pristine, untouchable “natural asset”.

Another of the environmentalist delusions is that people who live in the country (indigenous excepted) are somehow illegitimate invaders and therefore should be forced of their lands into big cities and placed under control of the corporate state. But it’s not only people, but “invasive species” they want to remove from the open spaces. The high country brumbies that have roamed there since Banjo Paterson’s days fit that category.

Gympie woman Alison Hayes posted: “I traveled and camped there years ago, beautiful fat cattle roaming around. Was fabulous, short grass with big open areas. Scattered with cow pats. Was great to walk around. Then we crossed the Victoria/NSW border and camping was scetchy with black berries everywhere! And snakes!”

Lynne Riley of Yammacoona (NSW) said there can be no doubt that the government in charge of this country and our states has put together a deliberate plan to destroy the regions and the animals and people who live there, assisted by the Greens, and those in the metropolitan areas, who refuse to see the deliberate and diabolical plan which has been put in place.

“The Brumbies were our lawn mowers. I adopted three and that is all they have done, no damage, just dedicated to keeping the grass down,” she wrote. “The cattle were removed years ago. Add to that the fact that there has been no maintenance done for years and we are sitting on a time bomb.”

She said it was important that everyone submit their concerns as soon as possible to all government departments. “They will be the evidence we need to bring an action against all those who sit deliberately idle. What a disgrace.”

Parks and Wildlife says the closure is “part of a strategy to cull wild horses and other feral animals” and a large area of northern Kosciusko National Park (KNP) will be closed for aerial shooting including sections of the Australian Alpine Walking Track and the National Trail from April 4th.

The boundary of the closure area is north of the Snowy Mountains Highway and east of the Goobarragandra Powerline Road to the KNP boundary to the east. A detailed map outlines the closed areas. The closure time includes the standard winter closure period and the area is planned to reopen on the 4th of October 2024.

NSWPW says horses, deer, pigs and other feral animals will be targeted. Like the shooting being conducted by Queensland’s Parks and Wildllife Service, is this an operation with the ulterior motive of destroying wild food and hunting – as raised in previous Cairns News stories?