Brumby advocate loses bid to stop aerial culling in NSW national park

In short

Brumby advocate Carmen Jackson took the NSW government to court over a planned aerial cull in Yuraygir National Park.

The Land and Environment Court has ruled it was up to the government to decide how the brumbies were "removed" from the park. 

What's next? 

Ms Jackson still has cases pending in the courts to stop aerial culling in Kosciuszko National Park. 

A brumby advocate has lost her bid to stop the aerial culling of wild horses in a northern New South Wales national park. 

Carmen Jackson filed a last-minute injunction in the Land and Environment Court in late August to stop a planned cull of feral horses in the Yuraygir National Park (YNP), near Grafton.  

Ms Jackson said the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) did not have the "statutory authority" to carry out aerial culling in the park. 

She said the park management plan used the word "removal" to describe how brumbies would be dealt with. 

Justice Rachel Pepper today dismissed the case.

She ruled Ms Jackson had not provided enough evidence to prove aerial culling was in breach of the National Parks and Wildlife Act. 

Justice Pepper appeared for a matter of minutes, saying the judgement would be published, before standing down the court. 

"Jackson bears the burden, on the balance of probabilities, of proving that the Deputy Secretary unlawfully authorised the removal and killing of the feral horses from the planning area," Justice Pepper wrote in her judgement. 

The government had said during the September hearing that the word "remove" was "very broad" and did not exclude "killing things". 

Justice Pepper ruled that the plan of management for the park, which comes under a certain section of the NPW Act, required the "removal of feral horses", but the manner in which this was carried out was "an operational matter". 

"The Secretary holds a broad discretion ... to remove or eradicate feral horses," she wrote.

Justice Pepper said the secretary was "authorised, if not required, to remove horses" from the park under the National Parks Act. 

NPWS has been contacted for comment. 

After the initial injunction was filed, the YNP pest management plan was updated before the October 1 hearing to strengthen language around pest control to include aerial culling as a method. 

NPWS can update pest management plans without ministerial approval. 

Ms Jackson has filed another case against the government before Justice Sarah Pritchard in relation to aerial culling of wild horses in the Kosciuszko National Park.