HATCH - or The Plight of the Penguins

Geoff Chapple’s rollicking Hatch or The Plight of the Penguins introduces a fascinating character from New Zealand’s rich history – Joseph Hatch. One man, three million penguins and an obsession with oil – one of the most bizarre chapters of New Zealand history is brought to the stage with both humour and pathos.

These days penguins are everywhere – selling potato chips, frozen foods, chains of cafés and tourist destinations. The shelves of souvenir shops are stocked up with the descendants of Pongo the Penguin; they are even winning Oscars. In the 19th century the Southern Ocean was densely populated with penguins and intrepid Victorian entrepreneur Joseph Hatch saw the possibilities of harnessing this natural resource to advance employment and industry in Southland.

Yet while other less populous species of native birds were being wiped out; while the kauri forests of Northland were being decimated; while whaling on a huge scale in the Southern Ocean went unchecked; and while ethnic cleansing of Tasmania’s aboriginal population was completed - writers, politicians and scientists from around the world went into uproar over Hatch’s Macquarie Island steaming works.

Hatch felt he didn’t deserve the interference and attacks on his character that his business seemed to attract. When his licence to Macquarie Island was revoked he took himself off on lecture tours throughout New Zealand and Tasmania to clear his name and garner public support for his right to run his business. He was a persuasive public speaker – he’d been Mayor of Invercargill and a Member of Parliament - and his audiences apparently often voted in his favour!

SEE his evidence yourself in the breathtaking images! EXPERIENCE the perils of the Southern Ocean! LEARN the horrors of penguin oil rendering! HEAR the man argue his case!

Spend an outlandish evening in the company of this charismatic, wildly cunning and obsessive man.

Event listed by Brianne Kerr

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