SCRATCHED- Plans for horse quarantine station dumped

THE NSW Department of Primary Industries today will announce it will not pursue plans to utilise the Albury-Wodonga equestrian centre as a quarantine station for horses moving from NSW to Victoria. The department is expected to make a public announcement of its decision this morning after privately advising centre members and others involved in the Border horse industry late yesterday.

A spokeswoman for the department last night declined to confirm a decision had been made in relation to the status of the Albury-Wodonga centre.
“I have just come out of a briefing and no mention has been made of it, but it is the No.1 job that we will be moving to follow first thing tomorrow morning,” the spokeswoman said.
Horseland co-owner and president of the Albury-Wodonga Equine Influenza Action Group Marg Barwood said she believed the department had yesterday considered her group’s objection to the quarantine centre proposal.
Mrs Barwood said she was aware the proposal was likely to be set aside, but she declined to comment further until an announcement came from the department.
Instead she referred The Border Mail to the group’s letter to NSW and Victorian veterinary officers that outlined members’ major objections.
These included the inadequacy of the quarantine buffer zone, the proximity to the primary transport route between NSW and Victoria, the expected increased movement of horses and handlers within the region and the inadequacy of the centre’s facilities for long-term accommodation of horses.
Earlier this month the Victorian Department of Primary Industries proposed the Albury-Wodonga equestrian centre should become a quarantine station, providing for a two-week stay for horses seeking to move back across the Border from NSW to Victoria.
The proposal meant that horses now boarding or on agistment at the centre would have had to be moved by Friday.
More than 80 horse owners, retailers and pony club members, along with equestrian association members, attended a meeting on November 17 where they voiced their concerns about the plan.
This was followed a visit by the NSW Department of Primary Industries to the region on November 19 to consult members of the horse community.
Later that week a meeting of people opposed to the centre plan was held and the Albury-Wod­onga Equine Influenza Action Group was formed.
The department is now likely to consider private farm quarantines as an alternative to the equestrian centre proposal.
A regular report from Victoria’s chief veterinary officer, Dr Hugh Millar, said yesterday that the state remained free of equine influenza and 903 horse equipment movement permits had been issued in Victoria since the disease broke out in August.
The report says nine investigations into possible border breaches remain active, with two ongoing investigations that may result in prosecution, but which were not in the Border region.
There have been 24 warning letters issued regarding minor border breaches.
A spokeswoman for the Victorian Department of Primary Industries said the 24-hour border security measures would remain in place.