Kawau Island, New Zealand
From Freepedia
Kawau Island is located in the Hauraki Gulf, close to the north-eastern coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It lies only 2km off the coast of the North Auckland Peninsula, and shelters Kawau Bay to the north-east of Warkworth. The island is located 50km north of the Auckland city centre.
The island is a popular holiday resort, the majority of which is covered in forest. It is 8km by 5km at its longest axes, and is almost bisected by the long inlet of Bon Accord Harbour. It was rumoured to have been the base for seaborne raiding Maori in the early 18th century.
Manganese and copper were mined in the first years of European ownership until the island was bought by Sir George Grey, Governor of New Zealand in 1862 as a private retreat. He extended the original copper mine manager's house (built 1845) to create the Kawau Island Mansion House which still stands, and made the surrounding land into a botanical and zoological park, importing many plants and animals. The house is now in public ownership in the Kawau Island Historic Reserve, administered by the New Zealand Department of Conservation. The reserve, which is open to the public, covers 10 per cent of the Island and includes the old copper mine, the site of New Zealand's first underground mining venture.
The island is home to kiwi and two thirds of the entire population of North Island weka. Among the animals that Grey introduced were four species of wallabies which do considerable damage to the native vegetation, thus harming the habitat for these flightless birds. The wallabies destroy all emerging seedlings which means that the present native trees are the last generation. The usual understorey forest species are absent due to wallaby browsing and in many cases the ground is bare. Possums, also introduced by Grey, destroy mature native trees. The result has been a considerable loss of biodiversity, with bird numbers plummeting due to loss of both food supply and habitat. Even the surrounding marine environment has been severely compromised by silt carried from the bare ground by rainwater.
A local organisation, Pohutukawa Trust New Zealand, was founded in 1992 by Ray Weaver and private landowners who own 90 per cent of the Island, specifically "to rehabilitate the native flora and fauna of Kawau Island". Possum numbers have already been reduced, saving a New Zealand icon the coastal pohutukawa tree. The response has been increasing native bird numbers, including increased kiwi calls, brown teal, kaka, kereru, and bellbirds. After assisting with capturing all of the rare Brushtail rock wallabies that could economically be recovered for relocation to a captive breeding program run by Waterfall Springs Conservation Association in Wahroonga, Australia the Pohutukawa Trust New Zealand is now humanely eradicating the remaining feral wallabies from the Island, to enable ecological restoration (mainly by natural regeneration), and to provide for sustainable land use in the Kawau community. The situation on Kawau is a case of animals being brought to a place and ecosystems where they do not belong. See www.pohutukawatrust.org.nz and www.waterfallsprings.com.au.
