Anthony Sharwood’s The Brumby Wars looks at the tension between environmental damage and sentimental attachment to Australia’s brumbies — and how Banjo Paterson’s poem feeds the myth.
An 1870 news report said wild horses were “hated and shot by all”. What has changed since?
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Brumbies have a devoted following among high country locals, despite the fact that they were despised by colonial settler farmers. Their mythical status today owes a lot to cultural figures such as Banjo Paterson.
Wild horses are wreaking havoc in Australia’s mountains.
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When Brian the farmer finished his poem the crowd went wild. Small wonder he earned the People’s Choice Award on the night. We were at a so-called poetry “slam” at a country hall in a place so tiny it…