03/09/2026
We know that the Snowy Brumbies can be the environmental answer to depredated mountain land... and what a switch from them being the environmental wrecker that was the reason used for their cull.
Please share as this could be the glimpse of hope for us to keep the Snowy Brumby alive.
What if the answer to one of regional Australia's biggest environmental problems was already living in the mountains?
Aussie Daily is grateful to Chris Chan and the Monaro Zone YouTube channel for capturing this extraordinary and hopeful story from the Snowy Mountains region. The Monaro Zone continues to bring the voices and initiatives of this remarkable community to a national audience with warmth, integrity and outstanding dedication. Thank you Chris.
For years the debate around brumbies and the environment has been framed almost entirely around the damage wild horses cause to sensitive alpine ecosystems. But a group of passionate advocates, landholders and scientists in the Monaro region are quietly working on a different question entirely.
What if the brumbies could actually help fix one of the region's most serious environmental problems?
Serrated tussock is one of Australia's most damaging declared w**ds. It is a tough, unpalatable grass that spreads aggressively across grazing land, outcompeting native pastures and reducing the carrying capacity of properties significantly. In the Monaro and surrounding regions it costs farmers an estimated tens of millions of dollars every year in lost productivity and control costs. Chemical spraying has been the primary management tool for decades but resistance is growing and costs continue to rise.
For several years now Claire and Sidonie from Snowy Brumby Horsemanship have been observing something remarkable on properties where their trained brumbies have been grazing. The horses appear to be choosing to eat serrated tussock as part of their natural grazing behaviour. Not because they are being forced to. Not because there is nothing else available. But because they are selecting it freely alongside other feed sources.
The team reports observing reduced serrated tussock on land where brumbies have been grazing across multiple properties in the region over recent years — an effect they are now formally testing to see if it can be measured scientifically.
Now they have decided to put it to a formal scientific test.
Charlie, an environmental scientist from Queensland whose daughter had become involved in the brumby rehoming program and recruited him to help, travelled to the Snowy Mountains region to set up a properly controlled scientific monitoring program for the trial. Working with Claire, Sidonie and landholders in the area including Chris Chan himself who offered his property for the trial, the team has established a rigorous data collection methodology.
The trial uses a standard scientific design. A control site where animals are excluded from grazing allows researchers to measure what happens to the serrated tussock without any intervention. Two monitoring sites on either side of the control are grazed by the brumbies. Measurements will track the biomass and dry weight of organic matter in each site across quarterly sampling periods, giving the team statistically robust data on exactly how much tussock the brumbies are removing and at what rate.
Trial just started — control + 2 monitoring sites, quarterly biomass dry-weight sampling. No results yet, observations only.
Charlie brought a completely open mind to the trial. He said he had no expectations about the outcome and would simply follow the data wherever it led. His daughter had come to love the brumbies through the rehoming program and he came to contribute his scientific skills to what he quickly recognised as a genuinely important question.
Chris Chan himself played a special role in this story. At the end of a previous Monaro Zone interview with Claire and Sidonie, someone had said on camera that what they really needed was landholders with 100 acres of mountain country, a fresh water source and reasonable fencing. Chris had heard that and quietly said at the end of the interview: I have the land. And as Claire reminded him with a smile during this visit, he was warned to be careful what he asked for.
The visit also produced a moment that stopped everyone in their tracks.
Moody is a brumby mare who was trapped as a young peppercorn filly just before the first major shooting program, alongside Ready, Steady, Easy, Nifty and Hardly. She got her name because she was the tough nut of the group who did not particularly like humans in those early days. Easy walked straight up to the handlers. Nifty was gentle and quick to learn. But Moody took her time.
During this visit to Chris Chan's property, Chris's son had a ride on Moody out in the paddock. A horse that came in wild from the mountains, that once ran from humans, now carried a child gently through an open field while her herd grazed nearby.
Claire called it magical. And it was.
Donny, whose six year old granddaughter owns Nifty, spoke about what it meant to take Nifty back to the mountains where she was trapped at the end of last summer. The Peppercorn brumbies that once roamed the Long Plain are gone. But Nifty is alive and thriving and carrying children. Taking her home to the place where her ancestors once ran freely was, Donny said quietly, very special on many many occasions.
The nine brumbies that have been working agricultural land near Goulburn are apparently doing so well that the property manager Mark keeps calling to say they cannot leave. He has rung to say they have done such a good job and he does not want them to go. They are coming home to the Snowies in the coming weeks and the team plans to document their return.
There is something quietly powerful in all of this. While the debate about brumbies in national parks continues in courtrooms and parliament chambers, a small group of scientists, horse trainers, landholders and community members in the Snowy Mountains region is simply getting on with the work of proving that there is another way. That these animals can contribute to the health of the landscape rather than simply being removed from it.
The trial results will take time. Science is patient. But the early signs are promising and the methodology is sound.
Charlie will return in a few months for the next quarterly sampling. The data will tell the story.
And somewhere on a property in the Snowy Mountains, Moody is grazing in the sunshine. From wild and wary to gentle and trusted. That journey tells its own kind of story too.
What do you think of the brumby serrated tussock trial? Could this be the beginning of a new chapter in how Australia thinks about its wild horses? Share your thoughts in the comments below. 🐴🌿🇦🇺
A very special thank you to Chris Chan and the Monaro Zone YouTube channel for capturing and sharing this wonderful story. Thank you to Claire, Sidonie, Charlie and all the Snowy Brumby Horsemanship team for the extraordinary work they are doing for the brumbies and for the land.
Sources: Monaro Zone YouTube channel, host Chris Chan, serrated tussock trial episode, used with permission; Snowy Brumby Horsemanship, community reports and social media, 2026.
