Macquarie Island declared pest free after 7-year eradication program
The World Heritage-listed Macquarie Island has been declared free of pests after a near seven-year campaign to eradicate it of rats, rabbits and mice.
Macquarie Island lies 1,500 kilometres south-east of Tasmania in the sub-Antarctic.
In 2007, the Australian and Tasmanian governments jointly funded a $25 million project to eradicate pests from the 13,000-hectare island.
A baiting program was undertaken, before hunters and their dogs were brought in to eradicate any surviving animals.
A monitoring program since then has not detected any pests for the past two years and the eradication program has been declared a success.
The project manager, Keith Springer, says the monitoring process has been intensive.
"We've had teams that have scoured the island by day and by night, covering a total of 92,000 on the island, in terms of their tracked travel, searching every nook and cranny that they could access, to make sure that there's none left, no rabbit and no rodent," he said.
Project of 'global significance'
The Tasmanian Government says it is the largest successful island pest-eradication program ever attempted.
Former acting project manager Noel Carmichael has told ABC Local Radio the success is of worldwide significance.
"There's been intense interest in the progress of the eradication on Macquarie because rabbits, rats and mice haven't been eradicated from an island of this size, all at the same time before," he said.
"It really is an important step in progressing the field of island eradication."
Mr Springer says people running other island pest eradication programs around the world are keen to learn from the success.
"We've certainly been able to share some of the lessons that we've learnt on Macquarie with the people planning the South Georgia project, amongst others," he said.
"Also in New Zealand and elsewhere in Australia there's certainly been interest in what we've been doing and what we've achieved and how we've gone about it.
"So it's a good thing to be able to share and try to progress other results around the world."