Tekapo-based contractor Nathan Monk talks about how constructing a rabbit netting fence line in the South Island’s Mackenzie country added an extra element to this large tenure review job.
The 17km job at Simons Pass Station near the bottom of Lake Pukaki job included 6.3km of deer fencing with rabbit netting.
Nathan and his worker, with the help of some casual labour, spent more than three months completing the line.
“There was just the two of us the majority of the time, with help of casual labour mainly when putting the rabbit netting on.”
He also brought in Geraldine-based contractor Ben Haugh’s crew that completed 2.1km of the line.
Weather, timelines and a ship-load of rocks
The weather was one of the biggest challenges on the job, according to Nathan. Almost three weeks of inversion layer and hoar frost left limited visibility in which to complete the work. Time management and planning was required to get around this.
“When it cleared, you’d drop what you were doing and continue sighting lines while you could see,” Nathan said.
On top of the weather throwing up some obstacles, keeping to the timelines that were submitted as part of the tender in the tenure review was also challenging.
“Due to the uncertain times we face, securing a date for supply of materials was a nightmare,” Nathan said.
“But the key material that was worth its weight was the Waratah rabbit netting. Its quality is second to none.”
“The scale of the rabbit netting was probably the biggest time-consuming part – having to put a rock on the apron every one to two feet apart.
“Over 17km equated to a ship-load of rocks!”
More than half a million clips
Rabbit netting added half the price again to the cost of materials, and the same again for the labour cost.
“This job, in particular, we rocked as opposed to pinning. I got a digger in to sort a pile of rocks into a manageable size.
“On Glenrock Station just recently we put seven kilometres of Waratah rabbit netting on and pinned it down as opposed to rocking because of the lack of suitable rocks nearby.
“At smoko one day we worked out that this job put us over 60km of rabbit netting and 600,000 clips.”
The control of rabbits in the Mackenzie has been ongoing for many years now, and in the early days, there weren’t a lot of fences in the area.
“What they did rabbit net was more a border for control,” Nathan says. “In today’s world, fencing has intensified and now between multiple groups are putting a plan together to intensify rabbit netting on new and mainly existing fences for easier control on rabbits.”
Ready for the next challenge
Monk Fencing has been operating for 15 years, which Nathan operates alongside an accommodation business in Tekapo township. He reckons 99.9% of their work is rural with a small amount of residential.
As well as rabbit fencing, the MacKenzie area has thrown up a few different challenging jobs for Monk Fencing. Earlier this year they also undertook fire damage repairs, replacing strainers, joining broken wires and restraining.
Article written by Rosa Parks thanks to
Nathan Monk – Monk Fencing Ltd
Read about Monk Fencing work here: Fence protection of Tekapō’s iconic Church of the Good Shepherd underway
Published in the Our People feature of WIRED December 2021 by Fencing Contractors NZ
