An ambitious plan to build a predator proof fence across the base of Farewell Spit is underway after it was initially dismissed years ago as being impossible.
Healthpost Nature Trust has begun construction of the fence which will eventually be 4km long, protecting wildlife at the country's largest spit from harm.
Grant Williams has been with the trust since the beginning and says he was daunted when he was asked to lead the fence project.
"It's a risky project, but it's worth a risk if we don't take these steps then it's inevitable we're going to lose more of our species," Williams said.
The public will still be able to continue to access the spit as they can now but it's hoped a reduction in predators will bring more wildlife back and prevent further harm to those who call the area home.
"We've lost 48% of our native birds, they're extinct. They're gone, they'll never return. Of the remaining, 52%, half of those are trending towards not a very happy ending. So if we do nothing then we'll be less than very few of our native sea birds and bush birds"
Construction of the $600,000 fence began in November and will hopefully be completed in the first half of 2026 as fundraising continues.
Williams said the trust has enough funding for "probably just over half or three quarters of the fence". She added more is needed to finish it off. "It's like going to sea in a leaky boat otherwise."
When HealthPost Nature Trust began in 2017 the initial dream was to build a fence protecting Farewell Spit, but it was put in the too hard basket.
Instead the trust set up an ecosanctuary nearby and relocated birds there, in the hope they'd one day return and create their own colonies. In a stroke of good timing, around the same time construction on the fence began, the first birds began returning and the first fluttering shearwater chick was hatched.
HealthPost Nature Trust trustee Lucy Butler says the recent success of the sanctuary has been important.
"We really feel like we're getting that proof of concept now that it is working and really keen to just take that momentum and expand it over a bigger area".
On the day 1News visited the sanctuary, even more burrows were found than expected, including some from wild birds.
"Just today, I can see it working, you know, the burrows and the baby and the birds. And it's just, seems like a miraculous fruition of what was a mad idea," Trustee Kim Hill said.
While the trust has spearheaded the project, its momentum has been maintained by many local volunteers who have spent countless hours over the years ensuring it's success.
"Some people do enormous amounts", volunteer John Longden said. "There's no doubt, there's no amount of money in the world would keep this going without volunteers."
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