A beef farmer from the bush has ridden his horse across the Sydney Harbour Bridge sending a message to the city slickers about protecting the land.
Wearing an Akubra and a Driza-Bone vest, Glenn Morris from Inverell in northwest NSW rode his Australian stockhorse, Hombre, along the bridge on Thursday morning to raise awareness as state and federal governments consider new legislation to increase vegetation clearing.
Traffic slowed as Mr Morris trotted along Lane Eight of the bridge just after 10am.
"I'm sorry about that for anyone that was caught in the traffic, but I just had a message to deliver which I think was important," he told reporters afterwards.
Beef farmer Glenn Morris rides his horse over the Sydney Harbour Bridge, in Sydney, protesting the NSW state government vegetation clearing legislation. Source: AAP
"We need vegetation on farms to protect healthy soils and rivers, and yet the state Government plans to allow important native vegetation to be cleared more easily," Mr Morris said in a statement on Thursday.
The 600km trip down to Sydney was the first time Hombre had been to the big smoke.
"He's never seen a car road before, he's never seen a city as far as I know," Mr Morris said.
While morning commuters were surely surprised to see a horse, Hombre too was a little jumpy at moments.
"There were these little steel things where the bridge must flex a bit and they freaked him out and I had to get off at one stage and lead him over."
"He'll be glad to get back to the farm on the soft grass," he said.
