Barrington Tops National Park has been reopened following a program to remove hundreds of invasive animals that were threatening the area's globally significant ecosystems.
Pigs, rabbits, hares and horses were among the animals targeted in the shooting operations that occurred over the past four weeks.
Barrington Tops National Park is a world heritage listed area. Invasive animals are one of the major threats to its unique plants and animals.
Feral pests have been damaging fragile sub-alpine areas across Barrington Tops, leading to the destruction of native plants, soil erosion and degradation of habitat for endangered species such as the broad-toothed rat and endangered orchid species.
There have also been risks to the public, including incursions into campgrounds and popular walking areas.
The pest removal operation focussed on areas of the park where invasive animals pose the greatest risk to world heritage and other values.
This included aerial shooting in and around the sensitive Phytophthora quarantine area to reduce the potential spread of this soil-borne pathogen.
The recent program follows NPWS' efforts throughout the year to remove invasive animals such as pigs, foxes, wild dogs, deer, cats, rabbits and hares from the national park by methods such as ground trapping, baiting and ground and aerial shooting.
NPWS will seek interest from individuals and organisations interested in rehoming horses from the park and, subject to interest, will undertake trapping for rehoming in 2025.
Whilst the park has reopened, some 4WD trails remain off limits following the annual seasonal closure due to trail conditions.
Tugalow trail, Thunderbolts trail between Barrington Tops Forest Road and Pheasants Creek Road and Barrington Trail south past the Junction Pools Trail are closed.
The closure does not affect access to the Barrington Tops plateau campgrounds, with walkers and mountain bikers still permitted to use the trails during the closure to public vehicles.
Barrington Tops is also home to the animal preservation project Aussie Ark, formerly Devil Ark.
The project's original goal was to only breed and preserve Tasmanian devils from an aggressive, non-viral transmissible and fatal disease known as devil facial tumour disease.
The first founding Tasmanian devils were released at Devil Ark in January 2011.
Due to it success, the project expanded to include other species such as koalas, the Manning River turtle, eastern quolls and the brush-tailed rock wallaby, as well as creating more wildlife sanctuaries.
In 2020, Aussie Ark helped reintroduce Tasmanian devils back to the Australian mainland, in the Barrington Tops of New South Wales.
