Canterbury Regional Council Is To Build A 48-Kilometre-Long Pest Fence As Part Of The War On Wallabies

Canterbury Regional Council is to build a 48-kilometre-long pest fence as part of the war on wallabies. Wallabies have spread outside the containment zone and Biosecurity NZ estimates they could cover a third of the country by 2050 if no action is taken. The council’s Wallaby Programme Leader, Brent Glentworth, says the pest is threatening Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park. The fence will protect the Mackenzie Basin, following the western border of Canterbury’s wallaby containment area, along the Tekapo River system from Lake Benmore through to Lake Tekapo Wallabies have a reputation for damaging normal farm fences but the new fence will be 1.3 metres high, constructed with Australian-made wallaby exclusion netting and have an apron to prevent them passing beneath it. It will also be rabbit netted, allowing continued management of this pest as well. It will cost $1.4 million through the Tipu Mātoro National Wallaby Eradication Programme and will take at least two years to build.