I'm sorry Six60, it wasn't you - it was me
Six60, the aggressive falcon and the curious case of the disappearing egg
Six60, I’m sorry.
I would like it known that my grudge against you is officially over. I’m a fan.
That grudge, which started over the balcony collapse on Castle St in 2016, finally ended when the band announced it was buying its old flat, and would offer some students Six60 scholarships in conjunction with the University of Otago.
Those winners were confirmed on Monday, and I wish them all the best for future success.
The Six60 scholarship winners, from left: Samuel Leaper, Teone Hotu, TJ Zimba and Emily Kerr-Bell. Photo: Hamish McNeilly
I was there at the Castle St apartment complex gig on March 4, 2016, and I’ll never forget the moment that free event turned into a full-scale emergency response.
Minutes after Six60 started to play, a cantilevered balcony with 16 people on it collapsed, injuring 18 students - most of whom were underneath.
Five were seriously injured, with 19-year-old Southlander, Bailley Unahi suffering a severe spinal injury.
Minutes after the balcony collapsed. Photo: Hamish McNeilly
The band, at the request of police, was initially told to play on.
I ended-up writing dozens of stories about the incident, but included only a couple of quotes from a few members of the band, who I personally felt could have handled the aftermath better.
So that is kind of where my grudge against Six60 started.
A massive response from emergency services after the balcony collapse. Photo: Hamish McNeilly
The band, which went from the free Dunedin concerts to packing out stadiums, acknowledged the incident in their film, and sent a message of support to Unahi.
That contrasts with how Unahi felt about the media coverage of the balcony collapse in a revealing interview with Attitude, which screened on TVNZ.
It is very sobering.
And that brings me back to Six60; our paths crossed when I had the job of reviewing the first of three Ed Sheeran concerts in Dunedin in 2018, where they were the opening act. I gave them just one line:
‘‘Earlier, hometown heroes Six60 set the stage with a set full of anthems, many of them penned just a few kilometres away from the venue,’’ I wrote.
But it is hard to hold a grudge against a band when you see and hear almost 40,000 fans sing every word.
I was beginning to thaw.
A terrible iPhone photo of the first Ed Sheeran concert in Dunedin. Photo: Mine, unfortunately
Add to that my two boys playing their songs, and I soon knew some of them by osmosis.
But my feelings all changed in July when the band was revealed as the new owner of 660 Castle St.
You can dismiss the purchase (at the not very Dunedin price of $1.7million) as a publicity stunt, but it is also a savvy investment for the most well-known flat in the student quarter.
But the scholarships? They didn’t have to do that. That is seriously cool.
Professor Richard Blaikie, University of Otago deputy Vice-Chancellor research and enterprise, said there were hundreds of students on scholarships in any given year.
The total annual investment (rather than spend) on scholarships, which includes donor-funded scholarships at all levels of studies, is in excess of $40 million per annum.
‘‘We prefer not to disclose the total number of awards each year as there are commercial sensitivities in some of these areas.’’
But Otago had a policy that ensured any new funding was consistent with the values of the University, Blaikie said.
Glad to hear it.
Here is a story that took my fancy this week, and it starts with Alan Dunlop out checking his newborn foals when he was hit twice:
“It feels like you’ve been clubbed by a bat, they come at you at about 100 miles per hour.”
But the Dunedin man was prepared, wearing a hoodie over his head in case the property’s resident pair of New Zealand falcon/kārearea came calling.
A magestic New Zealand falcon / kārearea. Photo: Richard Healey
He first noticed the pair nesting at his rural property south of Dunedin last year.
“They become aggressive when they are nesting.’’
When a granddaughter, who has curly long hair, got a “bit of a scratch-up’’ and after a few run-ins of his own, Dunlop decided to do something about it.
“I was getting sick of them attacking me.”
Attending to his foals, or even logging some timber became “virtually impossible’’.
“A bird would come whizzing down to attack you.’’
He said while the Department of Conservation (DOC) was less than helpful, he recalled the work of Parker Conservation from previous forestry surveys on falcons.
“I got hold of them, and they were out there that day.’’
And still magestic. Photo: Richard Healey
Enter ornithologists Kalinka Rexer-Huber and Graham Parker, of Parker Conservation, who specialise in native birds - especially mitigating the impact of human industry.
That included forestry areas and high country farms where kārearea were present.
There were estimated to be about 5000 pairs across the country, although Parker cautions that that estimate was now decades old.
While there were no resident falcon populations north of the Waikato, they were also notably absent from Stewart Island, but there was a population on the Auckland Islands.
The birds tended to shy away from developed areas or open farm country, Parker said.
“There is a range of reasons . . . they get shot because they will get into peoples’ chickens and things like that.”
Ornithologists, Kalinka Rexer-Huber and Richard Healey. Photo: Alan Dunlop
In the South Island the birds tended to nest on the ground, meaning those eggs and chicks were particularly vulnerable to predators.
Parker said the pair wouldn't go near a nest during the incubation stage, as it could cause the bird to abandon the nest.
So when Rexer-Huber visited Dunlop’s property and found the birds were at that stage, she advised having a “no-go zone” around the nest.
She told Dunlop there was interest in which predators targeted ground-based nests, as that information could be used to mitigate similar issues on larger forestry blocks - of which they were studying some 45 pairs in coastal Otago forestry and farm blocks alone.
Trail cameras could be installed, using time-lapse photos which were stored on an SD card. But Dunlop was having none of it.
“I said that was old pat, why don’t you sit in the office and monitor the whole lot.”
That’s when he decided, with the help of technician Richard Healey, to put in a remote live-streaming camera, powered by solar, which uploads straight to the internet.
Dunlop, who owned Otago Computer Supplies, said he spent about $400 setting-up the system.
“From my point of view if you can help someone out, it is all good.’’
He had also put traps around the nest as he “would hate to see those little babies being munched-up”.
Rexer-Huber said she was an avid watcher of the livestream and noticed when it was raining last week, the female would use her wings to shelter the chicks.
Parker said it was special to have four chicks in a nest and “the parents are going to be working hard with four mouths to feed”.
That was likely to lead to a diversified menu, including exotic birds, the odd native wax-eye, and small mammals including rats, mice, and rabbits.
For Rexer-Huber it was nice to view the live stream as opposed to “getting beaten about the head”.
To prevent that she wore “many hats”; at times a cap, a beanie and a hoodie to protect herself, rather than a hard hat which could hurt the bird.
Parker said the birds were fast and agile and could be “intimidating”.
“I’ve had six-inch cuts on the top of my head . . . very long but clean cuts, that are relatively superficial.”
Parker said most falcons were either an ambush or a pursuit predator, but the kārearea – listed by DOC as nationally threatened – was both.
The pair worked in the Auckland Islands, and had witnessed a 450kg adult male sea lion running away from a falcon.
That was impressive given the larger female kārearea weighed upwards of 600g and its male counterpart about half of that, Parker said.
I’d like to say thanks for all the story suggestions that are coming in.
One of those tips included a great question about the impact on the Southern DHB vaccination statistic as thousands of students left the city after exams ended last week.
“Only students who access health services outside of Southern DHB and who have their address details updated against their national health record, or NHI, will have their DHB region changed” - the DHB responded.
Another reader raised an issue of a rare kiwi egg up for auction at Proctor Auctions, which was set to go under the metaphorical hammer on Sunday, along with dozens of taxidermy specimens.
On Thursday DOC confirmed it was investigating this matter but wasn’t able to comment further.
I found this curious; the sale of a Kiwi egg is either illegal or legal. So I asked again.
“Our work at the moment is to determine the legality of the sale – so at present we can’t say for sure.”
Despite promises to update me, I had to chase DOC again when I saw that auction lot #351, starting bid $80, had been withdrawn.
“There's no update from DOC on this one,’’ a spokesman said.
But a quick text to Ronnie Proctor, of the auction house, revealed DOC had taken the egg.
And now for Tweet of the Week:
Lovely stuff. That view is looking down Albany St and towards the museum, which will soon host its latest exhibition - Sea Monsters: Prehistoric Ocean Predators.
That includes 70 exhibits, including immersive multimedia, and real fossils that are millions of years old.
The exhibition, which previously showed at Auckland Museum, opens on Saturday December 11.
And as we head into summer here is one of the catchiest songs ever made in this great city:
Enjoy.
Loved the Six60 narrative.