ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Will they still be here after the cull? Doesn't bear thinking about them being killed


WE JUST DON’T SEE IT …. Maureen Clifford © The #ScribblyBarkPoet



Beneath a soft sky grazing, on a hillside wildflower strewn
are a mob of Aussie brumbies wild and free
for the moment anyway, who knows what the future holds
and there’s some who say that what will be will be.
Why are some folks so accepting, don’t they see how it is wrong
to presume we have more right to life than these
gentle brumby herds out grazing – their family groups are strong
and they’re causing harm to no one as you see.



There’s a little colt there with them – a cremello – a wild child.
A blue-eyed wee heart stealer of a chap.
Does he not deserve tomorrow? Is he not worthy of life?
Should he be shot down or enticed to a trap?
On the hillside blackened fingers point the way to heaven’s gate -
they’re the remnants left behind by bushfires blast.
The fires that stole so many of our much-loved brumby herds,
souls destroyed and decimated in the past.



Mother Nature healed the earth again, she covered fragile bones
in green grasses and bright wildflowers from her store
she encouraged germination of the smallest fragile seeds
and nurtured saplings upwards to explore.
The Mother lives in harmony – it’s something mothers do
around the world – it’s known as nurturing.
They bring life forth in pain and then attend to all its needs
and repudiate the thought of murdering.



We only have one earth and that one earth we all must share.
A concept that’s not hard to understand.
No living being on this earth has more rights than another.
We were all once part of Gondwanaland.
We destroy at our peril, other species on our earth,
as we decimate our land, pollute our seas.
poison our soils and forests – we are killing of ourselves
and our arrogance will bring us to our knees...
There are none so blind as those that will not see.
9.3.2024

“Beneath a soft sky grazing, on a hillside wildflower strewn” What a lovely intro into a sad topic. Why are some folks accepting? I think Aussies overall would think it wrong but that’s if they thought of it at all. I don’t think it’s in our awareness. Has the culling had much air? A beautifully written and sensitive poem Maureen. I’m off to the internet to educate myself about the culling.
Wazza

I certainly agree with Wazza there Maureen, beautifully written words on a sensitive subject.
It is such a sad situation and they think 'out of sight, out of mind', but the pictures tell a much different story. And just what will be the result of the cull.
Well done.
Ron

Another beautiful and very sad poem about the brumbies, Maureen. It seems unbelievable to me that this culling continues, and it really is heartbreaking. Like Wazza, I'd be interested to know if this is "in your faces" on national TV and in newspapers over there on a regular basis or if it doesn't get much air time at all...

Thank you all for your support and kind comments - sadly a large area of the Kosciouszko NP has now been closed to the public for 7 months to allow the cull to take place with no prying eyes of Joe Blow public around to report or take videos of the killings. It is a very sad day for Australia IMO. these are OUR horses running in OUR park and I don't recall any Australianbeing asked whether or not they wanted this to happen. There are better ways.

Just to answer the ? asked - For well over 10 years+ by my count we have been fighting against this this - so whilst it has received publicity over that time, both to TV shows and Radio shows - obviously it has not received enough. But we are all volunteers, and have done what we can, raising funds to feed when required, to transport to rehomers across the country, to fight several court battles, run petitions, bombarded pollies with emails and letters, held public rallies in Melbourne CBD, Canberra, Kosciusko etc , put people on the firing ground to force them to stop firing. We have chartered planes to do our own brumby head counts based on actual numbers of horses spotted, not some computer algorithm that gives numbers totally false and highly inflated. We have sent letters to the late Queen and others, to Willie Nelson and other celebrities who love horses, to numerous horse groups around the world - anything and everything we could possible think of has been done, but to no avail.

The big issue is IMO that the general public of Australia do not relate to horses anymore - they are vehicle orientated
The general public have a very short attention pan - everything has to be instant - they don't/won't read a lengthy article detailing the problem. What is seen on the news tonight is forgotten by tomorrow. They don't care about or even know their countries history, nor do they know the important part that our heritage horses played in its founding days...and that leads us to where we are today ...a country that is hell bent on killing off its wildlife, breaking the chain - be it roos, koalas, dingoes, brumbies, birds etc etc - all are under the pump because we selfish humans, want to build our houses on good grazing/farming land close to the coast, relegating our farmers and wildlife to the less fertile and productive land out west and then even begrudging them that. We then of course complain loudly about the transport costs for bringing food into our cities, and about the shortages when drought hits those areas and food becomes less available and more costly to produce. Stupid is as stupid does.

We are hoisted by our own petard - and our animals pay the ongoing price for our arrogance and lack of care.