[1] Reasons for brumby shooting include, but are not limited to: demands for grazing land and water for domestic herds, sport, to maintain pastoral stations, to reduce environmental damage caused by the horses, to control disease, and to prevent possible road collisions.
[7] In 1844, Ludwig Leichhardt, a German naturalist who explored northern and central Australia, reported seeing horses on the Dawson River, which was several hundred miles from the nearest station (public grazing land leased to a homestead).
In 1854, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that, "the sale-yards are full of miserable animals ... Good horses always sell well; unbroken stock and scrubbers are of no use whatever".
[15] In 1864, the Bendigo Advertiser reported that hundreds of brumbies were seen on the back blocks of the Karamba run on the Murray River,[16] as well as from Loxton to Swan Reach.
[18][20] Options considered for the abundant wild horse population included to be "boiled down and converted into glue, tallow, leather, salt-beef, and other substances of exportable value.
An 1870 report of the Chief Inspector of Stock for NSW said that the running of wild horses had served as a youth initiation into cattle raiding (called duffing).
[23] The NSW Impounding Act was approved on 20 June 1865, and gave authority for landholders and squatters to destroy unbranded horses or cattle on their land.
[26][27] In 1866, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that wild cattle and horses had left most runs valueless, and that men always carried a rifle to kill any such animal encountered.
Public discourse by horse breeders in the 1860s called for a tax on brood mares to raise funds for "encouragement of improved breeding" and the destruction of brumbies.
[41] Newspaper reports of the 1870s described the difficult lives of professional brumby shooters: carrying out unpleasant work from dawn to dusk, with no comforts and inadequate pay.
[42][43] It was a "newborn calling", and the slaughter required an adjustment of values, to reduce what had been considered a noble animal to its base price of hide and hair.
[53][54] In 1947, pastoralist E. A. Brooks advocated use of airplanes to kill brumbies with strafing fire, as the practice of ambushing them at water sources was inadequate to their eradication.
[55] A few years later, aerial marksmen in helicopters were employed in coordinated control programs to pursue and destroy entire mobs of brumbies.
[57] In the 21st century, brumbies, along with feral donkeys, pigs and buffalo, were routinely shot from helicopters in organized culls in the Northern Territory and Western Australia.
[58] The government responded by amending the Diseases in Stock Act to provide for the destruction of the animals,[66] with brumby shooting limited to four months a year and to districts determined by the ministry.
[69][70] Proclamations named the Bowen, Maryborough and Townsville,[71] Roma,[72] Toowoomba and Rockhampton[73] stock districts, and newspapers reported "open season"[71][72][73] on brumbies.
[99] Feral horses have a considerable impact on their environment, affecting vegetation, water sources, soil, and compete with native species for resources.
[103] Feral horses damaged Indigenous heritage sites in Carnarvon National Park, by licking artwork and raising dust.
An overview of the history is summarised in Proceedings of the National Feral Horse Management Workshop – Canberra, August 2006'[106] Whether the brumby should be considered a cultural icon or a pest is debated.
Along with the excitement, it describes a life of hardship, yet the shooter remains compassionate for the animals while carrying out his "murderous trade" and dreams of the beauties who might be fashioned in horse hair.