Collaboration is key for wallaby control

Wallabies are a serious national pest problem that requires a collaborative effort to solve — no one person, agency, or group is going to win this battle alone.

In July 2020, when the National Wallaby Eradication Programme began, we joined forces with other local and central government agencies and began working in partnership with iwi, industry groups, farmers, landowners, and communities.

Surveillance and control work is key to the success of the programme and we're also tackling the wallaby problem by improving wallaby detection and control methods and undertaking research to better understand wallabies in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Under the National Programme, $1 million has been committed to research across the two main wallaby species that have established in New Zealand — Bennett's in the South Island and dama in the North Island.

In October we completed proof-of-concept trials to detect wallabies using night vision goggles (NVG) in an MD900 Explorer helicopter with state-of-the-art thermal tracking equipment. Further trial work is required but this could be an important additional tool to locate and destroy very low numbers on the fringe of wallaby spread outside of Canterbury's containment area.

You can learn more about the work we're doing to control wallabies in Waitaha on our wallaby programme webpage.