Lake Muir

Lake Muir is about 2.5 - 3 hours drive east south east of Margaret River in the south west of Western Australia.

Although the brumbies running in the area are not currently under threat, the OHHAWA is gathering background and other information as it is aware that the status of the land will change in the future and thus a plan to ensure the future survival and care of these horses will need to be in place if required. The OHHAWA has been requested to do all it can to assist locals and the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) in establishing a positive outcome for these wild horses.

Background notes (as of April 2009) are as follows...

Biological Background & Management Issues

The LakeMuir - Unicup System is an intricate landscape of valley floor wetlands from fresh water to saline lakes. It supports a large amount of varied vegetation that includes flooded gum, sandplain Banksia and yate woodland, wet heaths and sedgelands. Weathered bedrock hills support jarrah and wandoo forest.

The region has a number locally endemic, and some rarer species. Parts of it are also under threat of salinity and other issues partly resulting from land clearing and agriculture. As part of developing a recovery plan for the area, the “assets and values of the area are being documented, landscape processes analysed, and threats to the values assessed.”

Historical Background

The Manjimup district was first settled in 1856 by the timber cutter Thomas Muir.

Lake Muir itself was located by Thomas Muir after local Aboriginal people told the family (then based near Mount Barker) that a large body of water could be found further west towards what is now known as Manjimup. The Muir family still farm and live in the area today and it was at the time that the Muirs and other first settlers moved to the area, that horses were also brought in.

Tree farming (pines) has replaced much of the older agricultural practices on the eastern shores of the lake, adjacent to what now forms the Lake Muir Nature Reserve.

Today it is thought that there are around 100 + brumbies running wild in the area. It appears that the various farming families practised a form of managed breeding and released stallions and mares brought in from other areas over the decades, at various times, then later recaptured pregnant mares. The brumbies running in the area today are a varied, healthy and well bred combination of breeds including old lines of Thoroughbred, part Arabs, Percherons, Clydesdales, pony breeds, stockhorse/brumby types from other areas, among others. Colours range from a number of buckskins (of varying shades), “creamies” (dilutes) through to chestnuts, bays, blacks, black-browns and greys.

Most of the brumbies are thought to be descendants of older bloodline horses, although some have been bred from more recently released stock. (As in horses released over the past ten to twenty years rather than the past eighty to ninety years.)

Memories of Times & Horses Past

Members of the OHHAWA have spent much time and effort over the past few months researching the history of the heritage brumbies running around the Lake Muir area. Via phone and email, a good deal of anecdotal information has been secured from older farming families in the area. We have quoted extracts below for your interest, although exact breed details of horses – and the dates they were caught, released, or lived – have been difficult to secure.

Please note we have not named individuals or families except where permission has been granted or where the interview is already published through the media or on the internet...

He also said that some time ago, a big gray stallion from up north - from Anna Plains - had been released there. {Around Lake Muir}

He had caught a creamy coloured colt a few years ago, trained him and kept him for 3 years and when he had no more work for him, ______ took him back and re-released him. That colt now has a band of 11 mares and 3 foals.

One of the _______ releases at least one QH mare into the area to have it mate with the wild stallion/s, then recaptures it later. One of the women there has mentioned that if the brumbies came under threat in the State Forest, she would just let them onto her property so they would be safe.

He knew about or of locals who years ago would let their good mares go in the herd/s to breed with the stallion/s and then recapture them and their offspring. He also talked of stallions being released there. He thought the horses that had been introduced in this way were of good quality.

He also mentioned horses that were wrong in the head (not 100% sure what he meant by that), which were released there.

_______ knows the name of the man who released Percherons into Lake Muir area many decades ago.

_______ said they thought that some of the horses in the area were modern, not old bloodlines because of more recently released horses.

As a child, one gentleman remembers there being grey horses with black manes and tails in the mobs in the Kent river mob. The Warburtons who had very good quality horses, released these horses. The offspring from these were very highly sort after.

His father bred draught horses of which they usually kept 3 on their 30 acre property. The other 11 or 12 mares and the stallion would be let out to run in the bush near their property. Occasionally a brumby mare would join their mob and be mated by their {draught or part draught} stallion.

When his brothers went off to war in 1939, this fellow took on the job of looking after the family’s’ cattle which grazed in the bush. He was then 12 years old. He would see the mobs of brumbies whilst out with the cattle, especially during summer around the watering points.

He would catch the young colts, which was made easy when they reached yearling age and were driven out of the mobs by the stallions. The young colts would ‘cringe’ when another horse came up as the colt thought it might be the stallion. This made it easy to ride up along side them and they would ‘cringe’ up against the horse along side, which is when the rope would be put on them. The horses they caught would be used as hacks, for stock work and for pulling light buggies and carts.

Before the 2nd WW this fellow said it was common to see mobs of up to 100 head.

But around war time the horses were being shot for their mane and tail. Horse hair was a valuable commodity and after the war the price of it rose and so did the number of horses shot. His family lost a mob of 15 draught horses to horse hair hunters during that time.

During the 1950s’, horses were being rounded up and trucked out of Rocky Gully/Kent river at the rate of 3 semi loads a week. Their destination was not 100% known. This apparently all but wiped out the brumbies in the Kent River area.

He talked of horses that were taken for remounts for the 1914-18 war. He thought they were mainly from the Lake Muir area rather than the Kent river area.

He also talked of the horses {a long time ago} grazing “poison” on new burnt ground. {Established as the Hartleaf bush.} They mainly grazed on new burnt country. The {Heartleaf} would unfortunately come back well after a fire. The horses could eat this and survive but it was important not to run a mob that had been grazing on it. If they were chased they would drop dead very quickly.

There was narrow leaf Heartleaf growing on the Kent River and the broader leafed Heartleaf in other areas.

He noted that in recent time locals had been lobbying to have the old trails recognized and kept open for trail riders. They had started a local trail riding group and had several rides a year which were done over 2-3 days.

They have had up to 25 riders attend these rides with people from 4-5 countries enjoying the experience.

the below extract was taken from a published internet research interview – note comments re original state of forest in the area and comments on salinity...

“Andrew's family, especially the boys, spread north and west of Fernhill. One of his sons, Thomas Muir, was a great explorer. He was also a great farmer and a botanist. He had a keen interest in exploring and finding new species. There is a rush named after him. He was the first white man to ever see Lake Muir, the area of Perup and the area of Deeside. This is why we can categorically say, this is the start of the walnut industry in this district. At that time, it was just open, forested areas of towering marri and jarrah trees. Not a forest like we know it now. I talked intimately with the family, and I read the original diaries of these men. The forest as we know it now is totally overgrown. They describe that they could ride through the forest at full gallop on horseback. There was no understory. It was like we understand parkland, cleared land now. It was also interesting to note, when Thomas first settled Deeside, he dug six wells before he found one that he could drink. The first five were just too salty. So, our salinity problem has been here for a long time. I'm not saying that we inherited it totally: obviously it has been added to. But that jarrah, redgum, ironstone country in the southwest was {already} very badly affected with salt when the first white man trod on it.”

“The nuts from these original trees spread far and wide throughout the district. When we look around and talk to other families in the district, the walnut trees, by and large, are seedlings from the original trees.”

Current & Future Plans

Much of the LakeMuir area is now owned by the State Government.

To this end a management plan for the area is in the process of being developed by the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC). This will take some time. The OHHAWA is already involved in this process with regard to providing advice and assistance re the heritage brumbies running in the area. We send reps to public and Community Focus Group meetings.

All of the local residents and descendants of early farming families that the OHHAWA have spoken to so far would prefer to see the heritage brumbies remain in their current location, running wild around the Lake Muir area. This is their goal and one the OHHAWA has expressed to the DEC and other interested parties.

If the above goal cannot be met, people are most keen to see these horses preserved, if they cannot be left to run wild in their current locations. There are very few places left in WA where wild horses have been continually running and breeding unhindered (and partly managed) for so long, which makes the Lake Muir brumbies of high cultural and heritage importance. According to much of the anecdotal evidence gathered, these horses have not significantly damaged their environment. Indeed, it appears to have been more affected by humans than equines over the past century.

Wild horses in many areas – including Lake Muir and along the Esperance coast – are known to have reduced the fire threat significantly in decades past. Now that the horses are going, the fire threat (from overgrown understory vegetation, etc.) is on the increase.

In recent times it has been reported that some individuals have been shooting wild brumbies around Lake Muir for various reasons. It is known that the area attracts hunters (wild pig and deer), and efforts are being made to ensure the future protection of the brumbies. The horses are now being closely monitored and anyone caught shooting or mistreating the brumbies may be liable for prosecution under the Animal Welfare Act.

The OHHAWA has a Memorandum of Understanding with the DEC, signed in early 2007, which states that both organisiations will endeavor to assist one another in identifying and removing at risk wild horses of significance in WA.  

If anyone has any further information or photos to add to the Lake

Muir heritage brumby database, we urge you to please contact the

OHHAWA Secretary via phone 0417 177 011 or email

wadifarm@bordernet.com.au .

We are also seeking the use of trucks and yards on properties

adjoining the area in case future removal of brumbies is required.