‘WAGING A WAR WITHIN’ Fighting for the Australian Brumby & Our Heritage

orses were not brought into Australia because of someone’s dream or romantic notion. They were brought here by humans, as a resource of those times, to be utilised as a vital part of the workforce. In those early days they were used in every aspect of our nation’s progress, with many ancestors of the present-day brumbies, an integral part of our history, working alongside the men and women of early European pioneers in Australia. They were used as a mode of transport, to work, to pull carts and buggies, to take children to school, and to help build roads and develop farms and business. Our country was not only built from the back of the horse, it was also defended by Australians on horse-back. The early settlers bred horses in unfenced Alpine country areas. Many avoided capture and others released during hard times disappeared into the vast bushland of the high country to