Frontiersmen stand guard in flooded Tauranga

In the dead of night, when darkness cloaks the flood-ravaged Tauranga suburb of Otumoetai and its residents are snug at home in bed, Frontiersman Ian Clark is cocooned in his old-style caravan keeping an eye on a hushed neighbourhood.

Occasionally the 66-year-old's eyelids droop and he nods off but if the slightest noise punctures the silence, the two fluffy pekingese dogs asleep at his feet alert their owner to the disturbance with a sharp bark.

Mr Clark, volunteer duty officer of the Legion of Frontiersmen, has lost count of the number of nights he has spent on patrol recently but estimates that in the past month he has slept only six nights in his own bed.

Since floods and slips devastated the area on May 18, Legion of Frontiersmen have been stationed around the clock in Otumoetai and sporadically in Mt Maunganui, protecting damaged properties from curious sightseers.

"Rubberneckers, we call them," Mr Clark, a retired security guard, said. "I suppose it's human nature that they want to have a look but some sites are contaminated. It's a matter of keeping people out of a disaster area."

In Tauranga, 10 Legion of Frontiersmen members have volunteered for guard duties. They are subcontracted to Nutech Security, which in turn is contracted to the Tauranga City Council.

All the money earned from the patrols goes to the legion. The Legion of Frontiersmen was founded in 1904 after the Boer War, to provide help for the British Army throughout the Empire.

- NZPA