BRUMBIES, BACKFLIPS AND BATTERED RIVER BANKS
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* 1830s - Europeans bring horses to the Australian Alps, occasionally releasing or losing them, leading to a wild population
* 20th century - Populations stay low, primarily through intervention by stockmen and people capturing horses for meat or hide
* 2001 - The first standardised survey estimates a population of 5200
* 2014 - After a dip in 2003, numbers rise steadily to an estimated 9100 - removals from Kosciuszko National Park number in the hundreds but are well below the birth rate
* 2016 - NSW's Liberal-National government releases a draft management plan to slash Kosciuszko's brumby population by 90 per cent in 20 years
* May 2018 - Then-deputy premier John Barilaro backflips on the proposal, citing the cultural significance of the brumby, and introduces a bill to prohibit Kosciuszko horse culls - bill becomes law, despite being ridiculed by environmentalists
* November 2018 - NSW's own threatened species scientific committee identifies the brumby as a key threat to plants.
* 2019 - A five-yearly population survey estimates 25,000 feral horses in the Alps
* 2020 - The Federal Court dismisses stockmens' challenge to the Victorian culling program
* 2021 - In Mr Barilaro's final week in office, state Liberals and Nationals broker a deal to bring the Kosciuszko horse population back to 3000 by 2027 - aerial shooting is off the table due to the risk of losing the program's social licence
* 2022 - Kosciuszko horse population figures rise to 18,800 despite nearly 860 removals in 10 months
2023
* May - A public-sector union raises concern about workers culling or rehoming horses being threatened with violence, death and workplace fire-bombing
* July - The new state Labor government floats the return of aerial shooting in NSW and begins public consultation
* September - The consultation concludes - of 11,000 submissions, 82 per cent of those addressing aerial shooting support the measure
* October 13 - Federal senators back aerial shooting and call for a national threat abatement plan
* October 27 - NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe adds aerial shooting to the state's horse-management arsenal
Australian Associated Press