The Otago Regional Council is moving to take stronger action in response to a growing threat of wallaby incursions from South Canterbury, including via the Hawkdun Range.
At an ORC meeting yesterday, ORC chairman Stephen Woodhead emphasised the importance of countering the wallaby incursions, and said wallabies were, in effect, a larger form of rabbits.
He referred to the extensive damage already caused by rabbits, and said it was in the interests of future generations that money be spent soon to check what could become a massively costly long-term burden, if the pests established themselves permanently in Otago.
Cr Michael Deaker praised the high quality of a staff report on the wallaby threat and moved that two recommendations in the report be accepted.
Councillors voted to receive the report and that a ''comprehensive proactive wallaby incursion response, control and surveillance strategy, including funding implications and communications plan'', be drafted for council consideration.
Wallabies were identified as pest animals in Otago's regional pest management plan, as they graze on grass, small trees and shrubs, putting forestry plantation, pasture and native plants at risk.
The report highlighted the rising numbers of sightings of wallabies south of the Waitaki River and said the Otago Regional Council needed to be able to ''respond quickly to incursions and undertake strategic surveillance''.
''It can achieve this through a structured, targeted programme that complements Environment Canterbury's eradication programme'' for wallabies outside the containment zone, south of the Waitaki River.
