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Auckland Council hosted the second of two open days at Sandspit Wharf on September 14, fielding questions on proposals to eradicate pests on Kawau, an initiative that is evoking strong feelings on both sides.
Proponents want to rid Kawau of wallabies, rats, possums and stoats, whose presence is blamed for serious degradation of the island’s flora and threats to its fauna.
“We had 13 people attend the first session and 22 people attend the second session with a mix of views. Attendees included residents and conservation groups,” council biosecurity team manager Lisa Tolich said. “The questions varied and we found it was mostly those looking for clarification and reassurance around the methods before submitting their feedback.”
A feasibility report found a small minority of landowners firmly opposed the plan, concerned about the proposed use of the toxin brodifacoum, the potential risk to pets, and the fact “a certain proportion” of the island’s weka and pāteke would die, due to secondary poisoning. The project team said taking some into captivity off the island during the operation would ensure their populations were not jeopardised.
The team discounted fears of potential harm to kiwi, saying “kiwi differ in their foraging behaviour and the population is not anticipated to be at risk”.
‘An ecological desert’
David Kingston, a Kawau landowner since the 1960s, strongly supports the proposal, saying that possums and wallabies had left parts of Kawau virtually “an ecological desert”.
“They won’t eat mānuka, so all that grew on the island was mānuka. They ate everything else. You walked the bush and it was devoid of anything green.”
Twenty years of effort to reduce wallaby numbers through shooting and toxins had borne fruit, and “we now have, in the north of the island, substantial regeneration”.
“Ten years ago, I had to go to Stewart Island to see a kiwi in the wild,” he said. “I now have kiwi at night, out my back door. I hear them in the valley. That’s entirely because they have got somewhere [safe] to live.”
Kingston said he understood why eradicating wallabies was contentious.
“They’re quite a cute little animal and the grandkids enjoy them – you know, skippies hopping around – but I’m dreadfully cognisant of the damage they were doing.”
He said he tells people, “You’ve got a choice – do you want wallaby or do you want kiwi? You can’t have both”.
‘They die a horrific death’
Wayne Green, who has owned property in Schoolhouse Bay for three decades, opposes the proposal, having witnessed the effect of brodifacoum on wallabies, ducks and weka.
“They die a horrific death. Once they take the poison it starts burning up in their insides,” he said, adding that was the reason brodifacoum use was restricted in Britain and the US.
The Kawau proposal is to kill wallabies through a combination of hunting and poisoning with other toxins, such as cyanide and 1080, while brodifacoum will be used against the other pests.
Green said foraging wallabies kept undergrowth under control, and without them wildfire risk would increase.
He understood the need to limit wallaby numbers, through culling that was already taking place. But he didn’t believe they were pests, or should be exterminated.
Green was unimpressed by the proposal to take a small number of weka off Kawau during the operation.
“Do they know how many weka there are on the island? Thousands. I’ve been here for 30 years, and we listen to their song at night.”
Green said experts at the open day gave him a “sympathetic hearing”, but he also felt he was being brushed off with glossy photos of other islands where pests had been eradicated.
“Those are smaller islands. Kawau is a different kettle of fish.”
