Photos and Story by JAMES WOODFORD

Entire populations of some of Lord Howe Island’s unique wildlife are to be herded and brought into captivity for their safety.
Cattle and chickens will be slaughtered or sent away. Even though the threat is negligible, dogs will be muzzled and children brought close. Then for 100 days a poison will be about the land.
It is not a Bible story but rather the Lord Howe Island Board’s plan for one of the most critical and ambitious ecological rescues ever attempted.
Facing the potential devastation of the World-Heritage- listed environment, the Lord Howe Island Board has resolved to rid itself once and for all of the scourge of rats and mice.

Picture shows Sue Bower, Lord Howe Island Flora Management Officer, whose job is to co-ordinate the eradication of weeds on the island in the lead up to the war on rats.  

The idea of dropping 42 tonnes of cereal bait, laced with brodifacoum, may sound dramatic but even more extraordinary are the measures proposed to protect the island, islanders and wildlife.
Today, the Board will release its draft Rodent Eradication Plan. But so detailed are the preparations, the earliest date possible for its execution is August 2012.
Indicating how serious the program is being taken is just one of the proposals the plan contains.
At least two of the island’s native species – the currawong and Lord Howe Island woodhen – are to be caught and kept in aviaries for the 100 day duration of the poisoning. Scientists’ eyes have long been on the big prize of ridding Lord Howe of rats. Already banished are feral goats, pigs and cats and a massive weed eradication effort is currently underway.
Mammal expert, author and former Australian of the Year, Dr Tim Flannery was asked to review the science behind the proposed eradication.
He says: “It’s a very thorough plan that has a high chance of success. I think there is a good possibility it will help return the island to a near pristine state.”
Right up until almost every nook of the planet was inhabited by people, Lord Howe Island – 600 kilometres east of the Australian mainland – remained, for millions of years, the preserve of pure nature. The island was instead spectacularly populated by strange birds, plants and insects that existed nowhere else on Earth.
In 1788 the island was discovered by the crew of HMS Supply. Mice are though to have been inadvertently introduced in 1860 and rats in 1918. The impact was catastrophic and immediate.
Writing in 1921 the naturalist Alan McCulloch said: ‘Two short years ago the forests of Lord Howe were joyous with the notes of myriads of birds, large and small and of many kinds…Within two years this paradise of birds has become a wilderness, and the quietness of death reigns where all was melody.”
As the draft plan details, it was not just birds that were impacted:
“Ship rats are implicated in the extinction of at least five endemic birds and at least 13 invertebrates. They are also a recognised threat to at least 13 other bird species, two reptiles, 51 plant species, 12 vegetation communities and numerous threatened invertebrates.”

Sue Bower, Lord Howe Island Flora Management Officer, on the summit of Mt Gower

Aside from the ecological disaster, the rodents wreak havoc in the homes of the island’s 350 permanent residents. They also cause considerable harm to one of Lord Howe’s most important industries – Kentia palms – by feeding on the seeds.
The problem is already so severe that the Lord Howe Island Board spends $65,000 per year setting poison baits over a mere 10 per cent of the island. Apart from the on-going cost and the danger of the chronic presence of so much poison there is the real risk that the island’s rodents will become immune. If that happens then the opportunity to eradicate the pests may be lost.
Third generation Lord Howe Islander and cattle farmer, Esven Fenton, carries a little over 20 head of cattle, slaughtered locally.
Prior to the rat eradication his entire herd will be destroyed or exported because of the risk of his cattle taking baits or imported feed providing an alternative source of food for rats.
It is for the same reasons that every chicken on the island will also be destroyed or shipped out.
After the eradication, the board will replace Mr Fenton’s herd with new animals from the mainland, which he says, will allow a re-invigoration of the island’s bloodlines.
The local dairy herd of 14 cows, pictured below, will not be slaughtered but rather kept in a contained area for the duration of the poisoning.

“I believe this eradication absolutely has to happen,” Mr Fenton says. “Wouldn’t you like to be rodent-free on the mainland?”
Even so some, like fourth generation resident, Clive Wilson, are bitterly against the plan.
“There would be no-one on the island opposed to getting rid of rats if there was a safe way to do it,” Mr Wilson said. “The poison exposes the island, its environment and the people to a great deal of danger. Any statement that the island is plagued by rats is an exaggeration. I think they will do a lot of damage and in the end there will still be rats.”
But many others share the view of Lord Howe Island Board ranger and long-time resident of the island, Christo Haselden, who is a big supporter of the proposed eradication.
“I can’t wait for the rats to go and to be able to hear all the birds and see the bush regenerate,” Mr Haselden says.
The CEO of the Lord Howe Island Board, Stephen Wills, says these are not charismatic ferals like the horses in the Snowy Mountains.
“We are talking about rats. They destroy the wildlife. The majority of the community want this to happen.”

James Woodford travelled to the island as a guest of the Lord Howe Island Board.

This story first published Sydney Morning Herald 31/10/09