Great Barrier residents plan to wipe out rats, feral cats

Great Barrier residents plan to turn their island into a giant conservation zone - but the project is bound to meet strong opposition.

A survey by the Great Barrier Island Charitable Trust shows more than 90 per cent of 585 landowners support the eradication of rats and wild cats to boost populations of rare species on the Hauraki Gulf island.

"People even sent us money and our membership has skyrocketed ... There's a lot of support out there," said trust chairman John Ogden.

The plan would boost tourism and create jobs as the island's pest-free status would have to be policed in some way, he said.

Great Barrier is already free of possums and mustelids and is home to the largest population of rare brown teal, a small native duck, the elusive Chevron skink and seabirds including the black petrel.

Great Barrier's permanent population is estimated at just over 800 but the island has many absentee owners of holiday homes.

Mr Ogden said he did not underestimate the reaction of the people who campaigned against a marine reserve off the island's northern coast three years ago. Those plans are still in the pipeline.

"There's a small but significant proportion of people against any authority telling them what to do and that's why this has to be a Barrier-led thing," Mr Ogden said. The trust sent out 1800 survey forms.

Some people already saw the plan as the "thin end of the wedge" and wanted to know if domestic cats would be next.

"Our view is that at the moment it won't affect pet cats but they would need to be neutered," he said.

Barrier Bulletin editor Kevin Burke said the issue of poison would be highly controversial.

"I can't see people agreeing to a poison drop of that size," he said.

Mr Ogden said it was too early to know how eradication might be attempted.

"This gives the trust a mandate to look into it in detail - it's an issue that has to involve the whole community."