Possum hunter irked over trespass notice

A man reportedly ‘‘squatting’’ in a remote hut in South Canterbury says he vacated the premises ‘‘well before Christmas’’.

Possum hunter Richard Lawlor told Stuff he was ‘‘p-----d off’’ he had been labelled a squatter for staying in the Greta Hut near Lake Ohau before Christmas.

He said he stayed at the hut for several months last year while he was possum hunting in the area.

‘‘I pay my bloody taxes. I’m working 80 hours a week at the moment doing the harvest. It’s just a place I stayed when I was doing the possums.’’

Mackenzie District mayor Graham Smith says the council had received a complaint from a concerned party that someone was occupying the hut on Glen Lyon Rd.

As a result a trespass notice was issued giving Lawlor until January 7 to leave.

Lawlor said he left the hut before Christmas; even before the council had issued a trespass notice.

‘‘I was out before all this stuff happened,’’ he said.

‘‘I went back to pick up some stuff and . . . I found the bloody trespass notice sitting on the bench in there.’’

The council had not realised the hut was on its road reserve until it consulted the Department of Conservation.

Smith said the complainant claimed Lawlor had been living in the hut for some time and had made alterations to it.

Lawlor said he simply wanted to fix the hut so it ‘‘wouldn’t fall over’’.

‘‘I’ve done a wee bit to it during the past 10 years.

‘‘In the winter it was leaking like a sieve, and the rain was coming through.’’

Lawlor said he put a new roof on the hut.

He said he wants it protected so everyone could ‘‘enjoy this beautiful area and place’’.

‘‘I’ve done all the work for nothing,’’ he said.

‘‘I just want to see the hut fixed up and looked after,’’ Lawlor said.

The council would discuss the matter at its first meeting for the year later this month, Smith said.

‘‘We need to have a look at this hut; what it serves, what’s its history is, and what we’re going to do with it, and what’s the condition of it,’’ Smith said.