The Problem with Wallabies by Alison Ballance is an informative non-fiction text that weaves natural history with environmental science to explore how wallabies became a serious pest in Aotearoa New Zealand. Through clear explanation and real-world examples, the text traces how wallabies were introduced from Australia in the late nineteenth century and spread rapidly in areas such as Kawau Island, the Rotorua lakes, Waikato, and South Canterbury. The narrative explains what wallabies are, how they live, and why their nocturnal habits meant their damage went unnoticed for many years.

The text shows how wallabies harm native forests by eating seedlings and ground plants, reducing food for birds and insects, and damaging farmland by competing with sheep and cattle for grass. It also examines current efforts to control wallaby populations, including hunting, monitoring, and future technologies, while connecting this issue to wider themes of introduced species and environmental responsibility. Informative, factual, and highly relevant, the text supports students to understand ecology and conservation through lived experience and voice.

The text is ideal for integrated learning across literacy, science, and social sciences, supporting inquiry into invasive species, human impact on the environment, and sustainability in Aotearoa New Zealand.

 

This pack contains a range of structured literacy activities including

• Spelling rules ck / dge / drop the e / y as a consonant or vowel
• Sounds of -ed
• Exploring parts of language - adverbs, adjectives, nouns, verbs etc
• Doubling or not when adding -ing, -ed
• Floss rules
• Compound words
• Identifying and naming suffixes
• Identifying and naming prefixes
• Vowel teams
• Root words
• Controlling 'r'
• Diagraphs
• Schwa words
• Ghost diagraphs
• -oo- and -oo- / -au and -ow / 
• Hard and soft c and g
• Common subordinating conjunctions
• And much more!!

Curriculum Phase: Phase 2
Year Level: Year 3

English (NZC Levels 2–3): reading for meaning and enjoyment, identifying key ideas and facts, understanding informational and report texts, interpreting visual information such as maps and diagrams, building topic-specific vocabulary

Science – Living World: native and introduced species, habitats and ecosystems, human impact on the environment, adaptation and survival, conservation and sustainability

Social Sciences – Aotearoa New Zealand Histories: continuity and change, environmental history, community responsibility, roles and decision-making, identity and belonging

Text type: Non-fiction, informational text, explanatory report, case study

Key words include: Aotearoa New Zealand histories, wallabies, pests, introduced species, Australia, marsupials, joey, nocturnal animals, Kawau Island, Rotorua lakes, Waikato, South Canterbury, George Grey, ecology, environment, native forests, seedlings, biodiversity, habitats, conservation, sustainability, hunting, population control, farmers, farmland, sheep and cattle, damage, fences, community action, environmental responsibility, future solutions, maps, diagrams, science investigation