A brumby is a free-roaming feral horse in Australia. Although found in many areas around the country, with a national population of at least 400,000 identified in a 2011 survey, the most widely known brumby population is found in the Australian Alps region. As of 2018, the largest density of brumbies were located in the Northern Territory, with the second-largest population in Queensland.
Brumbies originated with domestic horses which escaped from their owners or were otherwise lost, with some brumby lineages dating back to the early European colonial settlements. Brumby populations are found throughout Australia, including in several National Parks, such as Alpine National Park in Victoria, Barrington Tops National Park and Kosciuszko National Park in NSW, and Carnarvon National Park in Queensland. Occasionally they are mustered and tamed for use as campdrafters, working stock horses on farms or stations, but also as trail horses, show horses, Pony Club mounts and pleasure horses.Dobbie, W. R., Berman, D. M., & Braysher, M. L. (1993). Managing Vertebrate Pests: Feral horses. Canberra: Australia Government Publishing Service.
Environmental and government research surveys have identified brumby populations as threats to native ecosystems, leading to drives to exterminate brumbies from threatened areas. These efforts have been met with pushback and controversy from some members of the Australian public who view the culling of the feral horses as inhumane, and who may also view brumbies as part of Australia's European Colonial heritage. Some anti-culling groups have formed to promote efforts to rehome, rather than exterminate, captured brumbies.
History Origin of the term The term brumby refers to a feral horse in Australia. Earlier nineteenth-century terms for wild horses in rural Australia included clear-skins and scrubbers.Morris, p. 58
The earliest known use of brumby in speech (1862, recorded 1896) is on the plains around the Barwon River and Narran River in northern New South Wales."BRUMBY", The Sydney Morning Herald 18 Aug 1896 Page 7 The two oldest known appearances in print (from Walgett, New South Wales, in 1871WALGETT, The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, 10 October 1871, page 3 and St George, Queensland, in 1874)ST. GEORGE ANNUAL RACES, Dalby Herald And Western Queensland Advertiser, 25 April 1874, page 3 are both from this area, and the next two – letters to The Queenslander in 1874A Voice from the Border, The Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld.: 1866–1939), 12 Dec 1874, p. 9. and 1875Buzzes from Borderland, The Queenslander, 20 March 1875, page7 – are from a self-described 'slayer of brumbies' living in Boobera, near Goondiwindi, just to the east. In the first two articles brumby is used in metaphors with the connotation of an inferior animal and the two letters from Boobera describe the brumby problem and depict the hardships of the brumby shooter.
Altogether in the ten years from the first (1871) appearance, a Trove search of Australian newspapers found just 23 more articles in newspapers and an almanac containing brumby, meaning a wild horse, plus five instances where one of these articles was copied into another newspaper. Four of these instances were of an article "Brumbie Shooting"BRUMBIE SHOOTING, The Australasian (Melbourne, Vic. : 1864 - 1946), Sat 27 Nov 1875, Page 7 from Munro's Port Curtis Almanac and Miners' and Settlers' Companion for 1876. In all 15 of the 24 articles referred to brumby shooting or hunting.
Generally from these articles it is evident that brumby was a new word and therefore probably unfamiliar to newspaper readers at that time (i.e. 1870s). One article mentions a mob of scrubbers; or, as they have been called in the latter days, "brumbies",A DAY'S RIDE AFTER WILD HORSES, The Australasian, 24 June 1876, page 7 and another asks, do your town-readers know what it is,—or who, or what is a "brumbie"? It simply means a wild horse. Other articles follow the word brumby with the meaning – usually wild horse or unbranded horse, some adding that it is a bush or Queensland word.
The Australasian magazine from Melbourne in 1880 said that brumbies was the bush name in Queensland for 'wild' horses. In 1885, the Once a Month magazine suggested that brumbies was a New South Wales term, and the poet Banjo Paterson stated in the introduction for his poem "Brumby's Run" published in the Bulletin in 1894 that brumby is the Aboriginal word for a wild horse. Its derivation is obscure, and may have come about from one or more of the following possibilities:
Horses left behind by Sergeant James Brumby from his property at Mulgrave Place in New South Wales, when he left for Tasmania in 1804. An Aboriginal word meaning "wild" in the language of the Pitjara Indigenous Australians on the Warrego and Nogoa Rivers in southern Queensland.The History of theGuy Fawkes River Australian Brumbies and the Brumbies of the Northern Tablelands Retrieved 2009-12-23 The term is supposed to have spread from that district in about 1864.Morris, Edward E., (1898, London, Macmillan & Co, reprinted 1973, SUP) A dictionary of Austral English, Sydney University Press, p. 58. A letter in 1896 to the Sydney Morning Herald says that baroombie is the word for horse among the Aboriginal people of the Balonne, Nebine, Warrego and Bulloo Rivers.Scrubber to Brumby Brumby shooting Baramba, which was the name of a creek and station in the Queensland district of Burnett, established in the 1840s and later abandoned, leaving many of the horses to escape into the wild. It has also been suggested that the name derives from the Irish word bromach or bromaigh, meaning "colt".
Early horse imports Horses first arrived in Australia in 1788 with the First Fleet. They were imported for farm and utility work; recreational riding and racing were not major activities. By 1800, only about 200 horses are thought to have reached Australia. Horse racing became popular around 1810, resulting in an influx of Thoroughbred imports, mostly from England. Roughly 3,500 horses were living in Australia by 1820 and this number had grown to 160,000 by 1850, largely due to natural increase.Dobbie, W. R., Berman, D. M., & Braysher, M. L. (1993) "Managing vertebrate pests: Feral horses." Canberra: Australia Government Publishing Service The long journey by sea from England, Europe and Asia meant that only the strongest horses survived the trip, making for a particularly healthy and strong Australian stock, which aided in their ability to flourish.McKnight, T. (1976) "Friendly vermin – Survey of feral livestock in Australia." Berkeley: University of California Press
Origin of feral herds
Horses were likely confined primarily to the Sydney region until the early 19th century, when settlers first crossed the Blue Mountains and opened expansion inland. Horses were required for travel, and for cattle and sheep droving as the pastoral industry grew. The first report of an escaped horse is in 1804 and by the 1840s, some horses had escaped from settled regions of Australia. It is likely that some escaped because fences were not properly installed, if fences existed at all,Australia Government Department of the Environment and Heritage. (2004) Feral horse. (Equus caballus) and feral donkey. (Equus asinus): Invasive species fact sheet. Retrieved 2009-3-1. but it is believed that most Australian horses became feral because they were released into the wild and left to fend for themselves.Berger, J. (1986) Wild horses of the Great Basin. Sydney: University of Chicago Press. This may have been the result of pastoralists abandoning their settlements and thus, their horses, due to the arid conditions and unfamiliar land that combined to make farming in Australia especially difficult. After World War I, the demand for horses by defence forces declined with the growth in mechanisation, which led to a growth in the number of unwanted animals that were often set free. Throughout the 20th century, the replacement of horses with machines in farming led to further reductions in demand, and may have also contributed to increases in feral populations.Nimmo, Dale Graeme; Miller, Kelly K. (2007) Ecological and human dimensions of management of feral horses in Australia: A review. Wildlife Research, 34, 408–17.
, the most current survey – from 2011 – found at least 400,000 horses roamed the continent. It is also estimated that, during non-drought periods, the feral horse population increases at a rate of 20 percent per year.Eberhardt, L. L.; Majorowicz, A. K.; Wilcox, J. A.(1982). "Apparent rates of increase for two feral horse herds." Journal of Wildlife Management, 46, 367–374. Drought conditions and brushfires are natural threats. Despite population numbers, feral horses are generally considered to be a moderate pest.Bomford, M., & Hart, Q. (2002). "Non-indigenous vertebrates in Australia." In Biological invasions: Economic and environmental costs of alien plant, animal, and microbe species. David Pimental (Ed.). Boca Raton: CRC Press. Where they are allowed to damage vegetation and cause erosion, the impact on the environment is significant, and for that reason can be considered a serious environmental threat. However, because they also have cultural and potential economic value, the management of brumbies presents a complex issue.
Brumbies roaming in the Australian Alps of south-eastern Australia are thought to be descendants of horses which were owned by the pastoralist and pioneer, Benjamin Boyd.Chisholm, Alec H. (ed.), The Australian Encyclopaedia, Vol. 2, p. 170, "Brumby", Halstead Press, Sydney, 1963 Feral horses in Barmah National Park mainly originate from stock released by a local horse breeder after 1952, there was no significant long term population of "wild" horses in the park area prior to this date.
Pangaré brumbies On the coast south of Geraldton, Western Australia, the brumbies there are known as "Pangare ponies", as they appear to carry the rare Pangaré gene. This colouring is commonly known as mealy and is seen mainly in a number of old breeds such as British Ponies, Timor Ponies, Haflingers and even Belgian Draught horses. The gene causes lightening in parts of a horse's coat, resulting in a mealy-coloured muzzle, forearms, flanks and the belly. It is sometimes seen in chestnut horses with flaxen-coloured manes and tails.Hoofbeats: Pangare Ponies Retrieved 2009-12-16
The Pangaré brumbies appear to have adapted well to their coastal environment, where they are consuming saltbush, which they do not appear to be damaging. The Department of Environment and Conservation and the Outback Heritage Horse Association of Western Australia (OHHAWA) are monitoring these particular brumbies to ensure the careful management of these unusual feral horses.Wild horses of WA: The Pangare Ponies Retrieved 2009-12-16
Uses
Brumbies have been captured, fitted with GPS tracking collars and used in extensive comparative research into the effect of terrain on the morphology and health of different horses' hooves. They have their paths of movement, diet, watering patterns and mob structure tracked and recorded.Equine Veterinarians: Wild Horses Give Us Their Secrets Retrieved 2009-12-16University of Queensland: Australian Brumby Research Unit Retrieved 2011-08-15
Captured brumbies can be trained as stock horses and other saddle horses. Encouraging viewing of feral herds may also have potential as a tourist attraction. Brumbies are sometimes sold into the European horse meat market after their capture, and contribute millions of dollars to the Australian economy. Approximately 30% of horses for meat export originates from the feral population. The hides and hair of these horses are also used and sold.