Our Mission

Wild Horses Kimberley Inc. was established in 2007 to protect the wild horses in the Kimberley area of north Western Australia.

We discovered that many specially bred Arabian horses had been left to survive in the wilderness after the missions closed and were now thriving and roaming free but methodically culled by Environmental Departments and Dept. of Agriculture who had no knowledge of their breeding or the ecological values that horses bring to country. 

To curb this ignorance and cruelty we set about advertising the history and breeding and ecological benefits of wild horses by filming, lobbying government departments and adopting wild horses.

The Sheik of Dubai, Mohammed el Maktoum bin Rachid saw our website and sent his vet to meet with us and to visit the Lake Gregory area where he trapped and transported 13 of the amazing Arabian horses to Dubai. It took a person from another country to recognize the true worth of our horses. We were also fortunate to receive 13 horses from Theda station when they sent us another 13 Arabian bred horses which had walked south from their origin at Kalumburu mission in the far north Kimberley. We rehomed nine and kept four to form a small herd which we use for research on Waterbank land near Broome to study the benefits that horses bring to our environment.

The world reknown Ecologist Craig Downer visited us in 2014 and wrote reports on Lake Gregory and Waterbank areas outlining how the horses are keeping areas fire free, well fertalized, protecting and assisting wildlife to flourish.

Recently we were able to raise funds to provide much needed feed to wild horses near Lake Gregory where due to late rains horses were starving.
 
At present we are compiling information on the history of how the horses of the Kimberley were bred on the missions from imported Arabian bloodlines and have evolved into strong heat resistant horses, very intelligent and skilled, very beautiful horses.

We have also recently discovered another valuable breed of wild horses living on old Tablelands station, now a conservation area. These horses were bred from imported Arabians from Oklahoma and Percherons from Belgium to create the strong resistant wild horses now both there and on Bililuna near Lake Gregory.
 
Our quest is to inform the Australian public about the true value of their wild horses, the great asset that exists in their preservation and protection.

Brumbies of the Kimberley in WA

Most of the Brumbies of the Kimberley today have come from the three missions at Balgo, Kalumburu and La Grange which released their horses to the wild after they closed in the 1950s.  These horses were mainly Arabians which can be seen in their unique body lines today.

But some came from stations which closed where horses had been specially bred for the harsh northern conditions.

At the Balgo mission, Father McGuire imported three stallions, Basic Street, a Thoroughbred from Melbourne, Grey Ghost and Palm Boy, Arabians from WA and Victoria.  He bred them with mares on the mission.

The offspring became famous throughout the Kimberley and some were driven as far as Waterbank in the West Kimberley.  After the mission closed some were left to die in an enclosure near the settlement, but many drifted over to nearby Lake Gregory, where they flourished.

We discovered these beautiful horses in 2007 and set up a website to save them.

Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum saw them and sent his Veterinarian, Alan Post to meet us.  He eventually trapped and took 13 of them to Dubai.

We met with Government in Perth and Broome and made a film about these amazing horses.  An agreement was reached to keep 700 horses.  We did two surveys around the Lake to count the horses.  We found 656.

But, suddenly in 2013, the Aboriginal Lands Trust secretly sent out helicopters and snipers to kill as many as possible.  The Dept. of Agriculture claimed there were over 3,000 horses.

With no knowledge of the bloodlines or the research which shower horses protect the environment they turned a pristine area over to cattle.

At the La Grange mission, now called Bidyadanga, released horses were thriving and some were being ridden and re-homed by locals.  These were Crabbett Arabians imported from England by the Catholic mission at New Norcia and sent north.  A Department of Agriculture employee based in Derby secretly hired a helicopter and shot over 600 horses there leaving them wounded and dying in the heat. We were called out by the Aboriginal Elders to save a foal left beside it’s dead mother. We brought it home in the troopi.

These horses were coming in to yards for water and could easily have been managed.

At Kalumburu in the far north a pure Arabian stallion, Summer Safari was imported from Queensland University by Father Sanz, another enthusiastic

Horse loving Pallotine Priest This horse had bloodlines reaching back to Naseem and Skowronek and was bred with Arabian mares and stock horses. After this mission closed the horses wandered down the Drysdale river to Theda station where some were mustered. We were contacted by the owners who sent us 13 beautiful horses, some we re homed and 4 we kept to form a small herd which we keep today.

On Tablelands station Gerry Adamson imported a pure Percheron from Belgium and an Arabian from Oklahoma. He bred them to create strong heat tolerant horses to work on the station.
Numbers of these amazing horses were taken down to Bililuna to help start a stock mustering herd. Some of these were exported to Tanzania to replace police mounts.

We were called out to Bililuna when the cull at Lake Gregory started. At Bililuna the Indigenous people refused to allow horses shot and we filmed our meeting with the Traditional Owners. Some horses still live near Lake Gregory but some died in a recent drought when the lake dried up and the Aboriginal Lands Trust failed to fund bores for water.

When Gerry sold the Tablelands lease to the Australian Conservancy many horses were culled as “pests” but some escaped and moved East where they form part of groups now wild around the Warmun Community.

Close to Warnum the famous Tom Quilty bred Quarter horses on Bedford Downs and some of these horses are now evident in the area.

Another recent secret cull by the Department of Agriculture killed 200 horses there.

On Waterbank near Broome are some small groups of Brumbies which carry bloodlines from Lake Gregory, La Grange and station stock horses. We currently monitor these horses, geld some stallions and save orphaned foals.

Last year we saved a foal from Bililuna (see Roi on our website).

The fate of the remaining Brumbies in the Kimberley depends on whether ignorant government employees and conservationists can finally understand the great benefits that Brumbies bring to the environment and choose to manage numbers by gelding some stallions, rehoming yearlings and using the reserve design plans which keep family groups apart.

In Europe the Rewilding projects are highly successful introducing wild horses to conserve natural environments. Research by Ecologist Craig Downer who visited us from Nevada in 2014, could form the basis of an education program.