We’re all going to need to start singing from the same song sheet if we’re serious about controlling wallaby populations, Matt Simpson says.
The Federated Farmers South Canterbury meat & wool chair has been advocating for a more coordinated approach to pest management, including the formation of community pest liaison groups.
“If we can get better coordination between farmers, landowners, recreational hunters and government, that will be a huge step forward,” Simpson says.
“It’s all good and well for someone in our district to bring in a helicopter and do a heap of wallaby control work, but it can’t be done in isolation.
“Unless there are similar efforts on neighbouring farmers’ and public land, they’ll have wasted their money, because before long, their land will be re-invaded.”
Simpson says the Department of Conversation are understandably reluctant to be isolated in their spending too.
“If they’re going to do a 1080 operation, it’s going to be way more effective if surrounding farmers make efforts to knock over the wallabies on their land too.”
Meetings to talk about forming community pest liaison groups have been held at Albury and at Cattle Creek in the Hakataramea Valley.
Simpson is planning other meetings further along Hunters Hills and says the concept of better co-ordination is gaining ground.
“People can see it’s commonsense – and it doesn’t have to just be about wallabies either. It could apply to deer or pigs too.
“How many times have we heard farmers complaining about their paddocks being reinfested by animals coming off the public estate?
“We need to get our own act together, better coordinate, and make some real progress.
“That will give us the leverage we need to go to DOC and say, ‘Come on, we’re doing our bit, now it’s your turn’.”
Earlier this month, Simpson was called in as Environment Canterbury hosted Associate Agriculture Minister Andrew Hoggard.
They were joined by Waitaki MP Miles Anderson and MPI’s deputy director-general biosecurity Stuart Anderson for a look at wallaby control efforts in the area.
They were shown progress on the nearly completed 49km wallaby-proof fence being built near Tekapo and heard about plans for toxin control on around 9000ha in Canterbury during winter months.
The MPI-governed Tipu Mātoro National Wallaby Eradication Programme had a $5.9m operation budget in 2023/24.
This was spent across the country on dog and drone surveillance, ground and aerial shooting, ground and aerial toxins, and fencing operations.
The focus is on containment zones around the core wallaby populations in Canterbury and Bay of Plenty, finding and killing wallabies in surrounding areas and gradually tightening the noose.
Tipu Mātoro’s goal is to eliminate wallaby outside containment zones by the end of 2025, an aspiration Simpson “absolutely applauds” but thinks could be a struggle.
“Wallaby have been breaching the Waitaki River and heading further south into Otago.
“That’s why I’ve asked the Ministers for funding for spray operations to kill off broom, gorse and scrub on Waitaki islands and under bridges that wallabies have been using as a refuge.
“We’ve got to break that cover down, so they don’t have places to hide.”
Wallaby containment efforts are also hampered by some farmers against use of 1080 or other toxins on their land.
“That’s perhaps because they also run commercial hunting sidelines and don’t want deer or pigs impacted,” Simpson says.
“That’s absolutely their right as landowners, of course.
“But if we’re going to keep our foot on the throat of the wallaby problem, we need to find alternative solutions in those circumstances, such as expert hunters using thermal gear at night when wallabies are out and about.”
Continued funding for pest control operations is also crucial, which is why Simpson says it’s useful that MPs got to see for themselves the extent of the task.
Ultimately, Simpson has his fingers crossed that gene editing can provide an answer.
“Imagine being able to knock a huge hole in the wallaby population in containment areas with toxins and shooting, then put some sterile breeding wallabies in there where they can run for three or four generations.
“That’s how we’ll stamp out the problem for good.”
Federated Farmers, New Zealand’s leading independent rural advocacy organisation, has established a news and insights partnership with AgriHQ, the country’s leading rural publisher, to give the farmers of New Zealand a more informed, united and stronger voice. Federated Farmers news and commentary appears each week in its own section of the Farmers Weekly print edition and online.
