According to the official website for Tourism New Zealand/100% Pure New Zealand, the Waimate district is memorable for its population of wild wallabies.
“Hop in for a visit” is boldly printed together with an image of a wallaby on the yellow shed adjacent to State Highway 1, at the turn off to Waimate.
Memorable for the wrong reason, Bennett’s or red-necked wallabies may be cute seeing them hop along, but they are a serious pest in our region. These introduced, stealthy marsupials cause damage to tall tussock ecosystems, native shrublands and forests, as well as farmland.
One wallaby can consume 350g of dry matter each day, four wallabies grazing on pasture is the equivalent to one stock unit. They absolutely decimate native undergrowth, preventing future canopy species to rejuvenate in forest ecosystems. No regeneration simply means canopy collapse, which leads to the demise of any forest.
Three red-necked wallabies were released in 1870 on to the early settler Michael Studholme’s estate in Waimate. Having no predators, they bred quickly, thrived in the Hunter Hills and the population exploded. They were brought into New Zealand for sport hunting.
While hunting wallabies may still remain a sport for some folks, it is mainly professional pest control people and landowners that undertake serious culls using different methods, which is essential in reducing the vast number of pest animals.
To manage wallaby populations, the wallaby control teams do night shooting, use drone surveys, detection dogs, and large scale use of vertebrate toxic agents, and have constructed a wallaby proof fence in the Mackenzie Basin.
The Wallaby containment zone first established in 1996 covers 900,000 ha. It is the area between the Rakitata River to the north and the Waitaki River to the south, from the coast inland to the Mackenzie district. Unfortunately, wallabies have spread well beyond this containment zone, into North Otago and further inland.
South Canterbury is not the only place where wallaby numbers have exploded. Dama wallabies create havoc in the Rotorua Lakes area; these have also spread beyond their containment zone. A further population of multiple species of wallaby are present on Kawau Island in the Auckland region.
Wallabies travel 7-8km a night. A major dispersion factor is their ability to hop and keep on hopping. If left uncontrolled, wallabies could invade a third of the country within 50 years.
A national strategy with the aim to eradicate wallabies from New Zealand was launched in 2022. To date, considerable effort and resources have been directed to target animals outside the containment zone.
Funding for the work comes from Biosecurity New Zealand, DOC and from regional council rates. Biosecurity experts from regional and unitary councils in Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Canterbury and Otago work closely with DOC and communities to implement the Tipu Mātoro Wallaby Eradication Programme.
Integrated pest management is the key for any pest control to be successful. Over the last 30 years wallaby control has been fragmented and wallaby numbers and range have expanded. The eradication programme will only be successful through a strategic coordinated approach and if best practice guidelines are being adhered to by all involved and/or affected.
Not everyone seems to know a) that we have all these pesky wallabies in our area, and b) the damage they do. What can you do? If you see a wallaby, dead or alive, report it please to www.reportwallabies.nz
- Ines Stäger is a landscape architect based in Geraldine, and a committee member of the local branch of the Royal Forest & Bird Protection Society