JUNE
PIPIRI 2024
EB trappers’ group kills more possums than 1080 by Ann Packer
In May this year, a dozen blokes with an average age of 80+ had morning tea with the mayor to celebrate their grand total of 1081 possums busted in 20-plus years. Wal Louden, who with Phil Benge started the group, reckons they’ve walked about 57,600 km between them – an average of 53km per possum. It all started with Jeff Booth’s pear tree. No partridges, but plenty of possums, saw his Muritai Rd tree stripped of fruit each year. He set up several traps behind his house and asked Wal and Phil to look after them while he was away. “When he came back,” says Wal, “Stan Hunt, an Eastbourne ranger, arranged ten traps for us and Jeff kept his traps going as well.” That was the year 2000. Joined by Colin Dalziel, the men started setting traps in the hills between Muritai Park and the top of Totara St. It took the trio seven months to catch their first 100 possums, heading up the hill with their dogs each Thursday morning, eventually extending their outings to five or six hours – an average of 10 km each trip. Possum eradication in Eastbourne has come a long way in two decades. Three years after the guys began their work, Mainland Island Restoration Operation (MIRO), a group of Eastbourne and Bays residents supported by GWRC, was set up, in a formal trapping operation that saw 10,000 possums taken out. The Freedom Trappers, whose numbers swelled as mates retired, resisted joining MIRO. Although invited, they preferred instead to move their traps to wherever they thought would be most useful.
The chance to bring out the old Eastbourne Mayoral Chair was seized when Eastbourne trappers, contentiously claiming to have caught “more possums than 1080”, were invited to morning tea by the mayor last month to celebrate their achievement. More about the Mayoral Chair on Pg 2.
Recently they have been pushing further into East Harbour Regional Park up Gollans Valley, adjacent to the farm where there are still pockets of possums. Wal says while possum numbers are now kept at low levels, reinvasion can be quite quick. Musician Jeremy Winter, the youngest of the group, says socialising is an important aspect of getting together. “We are about conservation. But we are also about conversation. We put the woes of the world to right. Witticisms and puns abound as our pooches keep the pack together. An occasional dip in Gollans stream, fresh
baking, camaraderie and coffees with a wee tot of rum. We are all the fitter and healthier – physically and mentally – for it.” Some things have changed with the passing years – their oldest member is now 89 and on damp days they’re likely to decamp earlier rather than later to Hive Café, where they “talk a lot of rubbish and have a moratorium on health”. But one thing’s for sure – these days they’re all the beneficiaries of lots of beautiful, large eating pears from the tree in Muritai Rd, which is virtually possum-free. (More on Page 2).
PETONE 25 Bouverie Street Phone: 569 8311
UPPER HUTT 9 Park Street Phone: 527 2227
PORIRUA 3 Semple Street Phone: 233 8009
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