Court case questions whether 'removal' includes killing in brumby aerial culling

The future of aerial culling in a northern New South Wales national park could hinge on whether the definition of removal includes killing.

Brumby advocate Carmen Jackson filed an injunction in the Land and Environment Court last month in a bid to stop the National Parks and Wildlife Service from conducting aerial culling of wild horses in the Yuraygir National Park (YNP) from August 26-28.

In the final hearing on Wednesday, Ms Jackson said NPWS staff who were to carry out the August cull did not have the statutory authority to complete the program because one of the officers' approvals had been signed off in early September, after the planned program.

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

It was also revealed in court that the most up-to-date version of the pest management plan for YNP was updated on September 4, 2026, and provided to Ms Jackson as evidence to be relied upon.

Ms Jackson said it was dated after the planned cull, and the plan in place at the time of the cull did not include language around aerial culling, only removal.

The lawyer for NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water's deputy secretary, Alex Graham, told the court the same management plans did discuss the eradication of feral horses.

He said the terms were "very broad".

"Eradicate is a stronger word," he said. "These words do not exclude killing things."

The government's legal representative also said the NPWS Act and the Biosecurity Act gave the NPWS secretary "broad general authority" to make decisions about the management of feral horses in national parks.

He said both acts gave the parks secretary the approval to remove brumbies from both national parks and conservation areas.

"She [Ms Jackson] has not proved that there is any lack of statutory authority," he said.

The legal representative later added that the documents "should not be interpreted as though they excluded the killing of horses".

Justice Rachel Pepper, who was presiding over the case, made the point that she had the authority to remove someone from her courtroom, but that did not give her the authority to shoot the person she was removing.

Justice Pepper's decision will be handed down before October 30.

Aerial culling was reintroduced in 2023 by the NSW government to manage growing numbers of wild horses in NSW.

The return of the practice came after a 23-year blanket ban, which was implemented in late 2000 after public outcry over the deaths of 606 brumbies during the infamous Guy Fawkes River National Park cull.

Ms Jackson's bid to stop aerial culling is one of a handful of attempts to end the practice in NSW national parks.