The Federal Court decision to allow Parks Victoria to cull brumbies in the alpine region has been labelled a "dark day for all Australians" by Benambra MP Bill Tilley.
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Justice Michael O'Bryan dismissed the case by Australian Brumby Alliance on Friday, after they spent 17-months fighting Parks Victoria in court over the plan to kill feral horses in areas including the Bogong High Plains.
"This decision will see 150 years of history slaughtered," Mr Tilley said.
Justice O'Bryan wasn't satisfied the removal of the brumbies would have any impact on the national heritage value of the area.
The alliance, led by president Jill Pickering, were hoping to put a stop to Parks Victoria's Protection of the Alpine National Park - Feral Horse Strategic Action Plan 2018-2021.
The plan will now go ahead as planned to trap and kill the brumbies.
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"I am not satisfied that the action, involving the removal of brumbies from the Bogong High Plains and the reduction in number of brumbies in the Eastern Alps, will have or is likely to have a significant impact on the National Heritage values of the Australian Alps," Justice O'Bryan said. He also threw out the idea by ABA that brumbies played a central role in Banjo Patterson's The Man from Snowy River poem and Elyne Mitchell's Silver Brumby.
"The reference to the films of those literary works in the assessment report does not support a conclusion that brumbies are part of the aesthetic national heritage value," Justice O'Bryan said.
Ms Pickering said despite Parks Victoria making plans to start culling the horses, the group will continue to fight for the brumbies.
"Their small populations in Victoria's eastern alps are an irreplaceable part of Australia's cultural heritage," she said. "We may become the last generation that allowed the brumbies to be relegated into the history books. It is a sad day."
Mr Tilley blamed the decision on the Victorian Environment Minister Lily D'Ambrosio.
"It has come to this through an ideological bubble, Greens-coloured glasses that have seen the Victorian Environment Minister accept studies blaming the horses for environmental carnage that has been caused by deer and other feral pests," he told The Border Mail.