Tony Perrett's Story: Reserves Ranger Westland 1975-1980

My first recollection of moving to Hokitika from Arthur’s Pass in July was ditching 3 layers of wool in favour of 2 layers of cotton in deference to the mild Coast climate. My initial area of responsibility extended from the Arahura River south towards Fiordland, but over time, it extended northwards towards but excluding Punakaiki. Graham Champness was the Reserves Ranger for North Westland, but as time went by and with moves to create the Paparoa National Park increasing, Graham spent more time focusing on the Punakaiki area.

Initially moving to a Reserves role in Westland was a major culture shock. Arthur’s Pass National Park where I was previously based, was very well staffed with good infrastructure and a healthy operating budget. In contrast, in Hokitika, I shared with Graham, our one and only Reserves Assistant, the redoubtable Bob Selby, and the workshop consisted of one room in the Old Customs House. That building was shared with the Ministry of Works. The building was located behind the Forest Service Conservancy Office.

The vehicle fleet consisted of one badly rusted out Mazda B1600 ute, and an unreliable Mazda B1500 ute ex Canterbury Reserves that had been pensioned off to the Coast after hitting a horse on SH1, south of Burnham. This model was mechanically flawed and every six months, required a major engine overhaul.

Over the next 5 years the number of permanent Reserves Assistants expanded to include one at Punakaiki to manage the Campground and Willie Leaf, Paul (Tanker) Davidson, Ted Brennan and “Dicey” Davidson along with Bob Selby, all working with us in Hokitika. Several gangs of PEP workers totaling about 20+ were also engaged. The PEP Scheme was a real boon for us as it was not only a pool of labour, but it included from time to time, skilled carpenters, painters and even a sign writer and other handy individuals both male and female. The Labour Department was really good to work with, ensuring we got the best workers available, plus money to hire minibuses for transport, and money for tools and other commodities. It helped that the West Coast was a special area for the PEP Scheme, meaning extra resources were available to us.

Moving to the old Fords Brewery building on Gibson Quay gave us a very useful space for a workshop with storage space also available in Kaniere.

I had the unusual situation of effectively having two bosses. My line manager was the District Field Officer, but for a lot of what I did, I answered to the Assistant Commissioner of Crown Lands. A bit strange but it seemed to work ok.

During this period, several staff were seconded to Raoul Island in the Kermadec   Islands, north of New Zealand for 6 months at a time. Grahame Champness, “Dicey” Davidson, and Bob Selby (2 tours) spent tours of duty there. Grahame came back with a bad case of 245T poisoning. A big strapping lad of 18 stone was reduced to a shrunken bent over old man. He did recover though but it took a while

Some of the Reserves Assistants had very useful trades e.g., Paul Davidson was a qualified carpenter and Willie Leaf was a bushman but more importantly, was a very good fencer, a skill in desperately short supply on the Coast. We periodically ran our own fencing gang under Willie’s supervision.

Operating funding in 1975 consisted of enough money to buy the year’s supply of toilet paper for the facilities at Lake Mahinapua, Lake Kaniere, Lake Ianthe and Lake Paringa and not much else. All other expenditure was funded out of Crown Land monies or charged to the Labour Department.

Our vehicle situation was dire. Lands and Survey found old Holden car that had been used as a school bus from Bell Hill Farm Settlement. This Holden sedan was so unsafe to drive that I refused to use it. At speeds above 50 kph it had a mind of its own and wandered dangerously. Almost impossible to keep on the road. Eventually, Grahame and I got brand new Datsun 1500 utes.

Notable Reserves Activities

Boatshed removals

A large number of boatsheds cluttered up the limited available foreshore at Lake Kaniere. These were being progressively removed, allowing for more public use of the shorelines.

Illegal Duckshooting

There are about a dozen lakes that were in reserves. Local duckshooters had traditionally shot the lakes without any authority. Some policing was undertaken, sometimes with police in attendance. The intention was to encourage some sort of permitting outcome to be developed by the department, but I left the Coast before this matter was resolved. We did however, tongue in cheek, receive an invitation to attend the Lake Ianthe Duckshooters’ Ball, an annual event held at the Pukekura Tavern, which we declined. A sometimes scary and unpredictable exercise on your own, especially when it involved seizing firearms.

Illegal Eel Fishing

This practice was rife in some of the lakes. No permits had ever been issued or sought. Some fyke nets were seized from Lake Ianthe and court proceedings began. The outcome was not one we were expecting. The judge decided that eels were not native fish and threw the case out!

Boundary Fencing – Karangarua

Several of us were involved in this job, in two vehicles. Near the end of the week a big storm hit South Westland, causing the road home over the Fox Hills to be badly washed out, with repairs expected to take several days. The only way home was to head south over the Haast Pass, Lindis Pass and Arthur’s Pass which is what we decided to do. It was do this or get flown out by helicopter and abandoning our vehicles for an indefinite period. This occurred at a time of restrictions on petrol sales at weekends. We had to get to Geraldine before midday on the Saturday to fill up with enough petrol to get to Hokitika on one tank of fuel. After a very early start we made it in one day, just, despite hitting a sheep on the road, near Jacksons.

The Case of the Exploding Toilet

We had constructed and installed a new long drop toilet at the very popular Dorothy Falls at Lake Kaniere. Shortly after it was built, someone dropped a stick of gelignite down the hole, totally demolishing the structure. We never found out who did it and we never replaced the toilet.

Waitangiroto Nature Reserve- aka The White Heron Colony (see image 1)

This is a case of office politics that backfired. Traditionally, the reserve had been managed by National Park staff at Franz Josef. The Chief Ranger, Alan Cragg, thought he could persuade the Commissioner of Crown Lands into giving the Park more money if he said he could not afford to man the reserve during the breeding season. His request failed and the Commissioner transferred the management responsibility of the reserve to me. The hut in the reserve used by staff during the breeding season, was in danger of falling into the sea. Our staff went down to the reserve and with the assistance of some local farm settlement staff and a tractor, dragged the hut to a safe location. The hut had some improvements done like a shower fitted. Reserve’s staff were rostered on duty, 10 days at a time, at the reserve over the breeding season and were allowed to take their families with them if they wanted. They were ferried in and out by the department’s jet boat. There was plenty of time for fishing or whitebaiting, so there was plenty of staff willing to go and do a stint at the reserve.

The reserve boundary with farmland was unfenced. Cattle in the reserve were a problem. I approached the farmer to discuss boundary fencing and shared costs. I heard subsequently that I was being blamed by the family for causing the premature death of the farmer He was 85!

Government plans to add Waikukupa and Okarito State Forests to Westland National Park threw doubt on the future log supply to the sawmills in Whataroa and Harihari. The mills were major employers in these communities and closure of the mills would be devastating. The result was a lot of angst, threats of harm to National Park staff, their wives were refused service in shops and businesses, their kids were beaten up at school and white herons were to be shot on sight. A very nasty time! The forests were added to the park and the sawmills in both towns closed.

Hokitika Gorge Scenic Reserve (see image 2)

In the late 1970s access to the bridge over the Hokitika River Gorge was pretty basic and very few tourists ventured inland in search of the attraction. We did some limited tidying up of access. The Westland County Council owned the stock bridge, it was used to move stock from one side of the river to the other. The bridge was nearing the end of its life. Compare this situation to the infrastructure and new bridge in place today. It’s no wonder that it has become a hugely popular tourist destination.

Saving the Mahinapua Steamer (see images 3,4 and 5)

Dr Peter Wardle, botanist with DSIR Botany Division was undertaking a Biological Survey of Westland Land District Reserves. This was part of a national stock take of reserves. When he came to do the survey of Lake Mahinapua Scenic Reserve, he noted the scuttled wreck of the historic steamer lying on the western shoreline. The steamer had operated between Hokitika town and the lake. A short dray road led to the Totara Lagoon where another similar steamer operated to the southern end of the lagoon. This route was the only access to get goods to the burgeoning Ross Goldfield, one of the richest workings on the Coast. Peter suggested that Lands and Survey consider rescuing the steamer remains, before it totally rusted away. We decided to give it a go!

The wreck was effectively rusted to the lake bed iron sands and due to its state of decay, it required considerable care in its extraction. The hull required considerable bracing to prevent it collapsing before it could be floated. Helpful advice was obtained from Max ???, a stalwart of the Lake Mahinapua Yacht Club. Max worked for Fletchers Mill at Ruatapu and he was instrumental in getting the Company to donate us the timber used for bracing the hull. Flotation was achieved by strategically tying empty 44-gallon drums to the hull to give buoyancy. An air compressor was used to finally free the hull from the iron sands lake bed. The Lands and Survey jet boat was then used to carefully and slowly tow the wreck around to its new site at the foreshore near the yacht club building. The Westland County Council made available a truck and hiab to move the wreck to its current site, hopefully above flood level. Our staff then built the shelter structure around it and did some limited restoration such as new decking and coating all metal work with coal tar.

Thus, an important link with the history of the West Coast Goldfields past has been preserved.

Lake Kaniere Track 

The idea was to build a track around the western shoreline of the lake from Sunny Bight to The Styx. About 1km of the track had been roughly formed before I left the Coast.  It has since been completed.

Walkways Development

The introduction of the Walkways Act was an exciting opportunity to be able to create public walking tracks over both public and private land. Each Land District had its own District Committee whose members identified opportunities for new walkways, with Lands and Survey Reserves staff responsible for constructing, maintaining and promoting them. The local Westland committee ended up being partly captured by the Forest Service rep who was able to largely dictate priorities for Lands and Survey to do, but refusing to agree to any Forest Service developed walking tracks being identified as official Walkways. This situation created a lot of local friction. Lands and Survey and Forest Service would end up taking turns at opening new tracks. There were markedly different approaches used by the two agencies, Forest Service had access to a lot of heavy earthmoving equipment which they used to create carparks, picnic areas etc and often ended up destroying a lot of the historic fabric and landscape setting in the process. The Lands and Survey approach was of one of just using manpower, largely through the use of the PEP Scheme. This was a lot gentler on the land, and in my view, created a better end result.

Mahinapua Walkway (see image 6)

This was the first project we did. It started at SH1 and used the first part of the track to Picnic Point on the eastern shoreline of Lake Mahinapua. It then picked up an old sawmill tramline that crossed State Forest that accessed the old Mananui Sawmill site.  The formation was capable of carrying logging locos and only needed vegetation clearance and minor resurfacing. We were not sure how much use the walkway would get so we elected to use the standard NZFS footbridge design to cross the Mahinapua Creek. A short section of walkway then crossed farmland and exited at the Ruatapu Road.

Brief mention should be made of the Point Elizabeth Walkway from Cobden to Rapahoe. This traversed the 12 Apostles and the terrain was awful. It was limestone and mud which was difficult to work with, progress was very slow. I don’t recall it being finished before I left the Coast.

Ross Goldfields Walkways (see images 7,8 and 9)

This project was something special. Ross was known as the Ballarat of the Coast, a nod to its celebrated namesake on the Victorian Goldfields. In terms of goldfield features, Ross at the time had done little to recognise its heritage status, but all the ingredients in terms of goldfields features were there, plus it had an enthusiastic and supportive permanent population. It also had a favourite son, one Phillip Ross May, a noted scholar of history and an author. Phillip was a lecturer in history at the University of Canterbury and had extensively researched the West Coast Goldfields. He was an expert on the Ross Goldfields in particular.

We contacted Phillip and picked his brains and support for developing a network of historic goldfields walkways at Ross. A small domain existed in the area we concentrated on, which became the site for displays of mining technology used on the goldfield including the original fire bell tower. We were gifted the de Bakker’s cottage, an original goldminers cottage, which we relocated to the domain and restored it to become a visitor centre for the complex.

There were a lot of original town buildings remaining nearby, e.g., the hospital, nurses’ home, Empire Hotel, the Catholic Church, etc. The walkway entered the old Ross Cemetery. Many of the graves recorded death by drowning. We cleared the gorse and other regrowth from around the headstones, some of which were quite ornate for the time. The walkway continued up Jones Creek via a water race track and dams before returning to the domain via an old road.

The Walkway opening was a festive community affair, with a grand parade of floats and an opening speech by the Director General of Lands, Bing Lucas.

 A second walkway was subsequently developed on the other side of Jones Creek, a loop track through the extensive Chinese mining tailings and some of the renowned sites of deep lead underground mines.

Unfortunately, Phillip Ross May had died before the first walkway was opened. We even interviewed some of the old identities in the town, to record their recollections of the history of the Ross Goldfields.

Lake Kaniere Water Race Walkway

 This proposal was initiated but not completed before I left the Coast. The route started at the Landing, the lake outlet. It followed a water race track alongside the Kaniere River valley to the small power plant. The walkway required minimal construction or improvements to bring it up to standard for a walkway, which duly happened.

Other Activities of Note

Apart from the humdrum of processing a power scheme proposal on Lake Kaniere, various mining licences applications, applications for deer capture pens on reserves, and assisting with identifying potential sites on crown land for ohu (communes), there were several other memorable projects that I got involved with. Here is a selection of the more interesting ones.

Illegal Occupations

The 1970s were the peak for the hippy invasion of the Coast. Many were squatting along the Coast Road between Rapahoe and Cape Foulwind in a variety of structures including caves, abandoned coalmines, and old buses. Often the only indication of occupation was a dump of coal on the side of the road. I teamed up with the field officers to record these sites.

We also helped the police in their annual search for cannabis plots.

A more hazardous activity was investigating and recording unauthorised occupations along banks of the South Westland whitebait rivers. This was being done in conjunction with local authorities as no one were paying rent or rates. The problem was that bad that substantial dwellings were being bought and sold with no property title rights. We teamed up with field officers again in teams of two for safety reasons as we expected opposition. We timed our visits to correspond with the last weeks of the season. Many had already left, but there were enough people around to give us the information we needed. I assume licensing duly followed.

When is a Reserve not a Reserve

This is the true story of the Mananui Bush. It was sitting there as a piece of unprotected crown land which provided a near continuous strip of coastal podocarp forest extending from the large Lake Mahinapua Scenic Reserve nearby to the edge of the Tasman Sea. It was such an obvious contender for reserve status despite being only a few hectares in size. I duly investigated and completed the paperwork seeking approval to reserve it. Only to be knocked back by the senior management hierarchy in the office, who argued that it was not politically correct at that time to put any more land into reserves.

Not deterred we built a track to create public access to the beach and signposted the area as Mananui Bush. Signage was done using standard reserve livery.

Okarito Wharf and Shed Restoration (see images 10 and 11)

One day, in walked Gordon Nichols, retired Supervisor of National Parks. Gordon was living in Okarito and on behalf of the local community, he had undertaken to organise the restoration of the Okarito wharf and shed. He had persuaded Forest Service to donate the required timber and he approached me to see if I could help with the build. Hard to say “no” to a man who had offered me my first ranger’s job. So, I agreed.

Paul (Tanker) Davidson plus several handy PEP workers, one of whom was a carpenter, duly went to Okarito and did the business. Another tick for working with the locals to achieve a lasting outcome and preserve a key component of Okarito’s heyday as a historic goldfields town.

New Zealand’s Worst Mining Disaster (see images 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16)

Located up the Grey Valley, on the banks of the Grey River near Dobson, is the site of the Brunner Mine Disaster. This is the worst coal mining disaster in New Zealand’s history. It occurred in 1896 with the loss of 65 men and boys underground, who were caught in a firedamp explosion. The miners are buried in the Stillwater Cemetery, with 33 in one mass grave.

Local interests, aided by Ministry of Works, NZ Historic Places Trust, Grey Harbour Board and Department of Lands and Survey worked together to protect the substantial industrial heritage on site. The features included: a row of coke-manufacturing ovens; a suspension bridge across the Grey River; and a brick tower on the south side of the river next to the railway line. The tower is part of a separate mine.

Our role was to create a loop walking track around the site. Once again, PEP labour provided the grunt to achieve this. The land at the time was Harbour Board land.

Southern Alps Crown Land Management Study

I spent what was to be my last summer on the Coast, taking part in the field component of this study. The study extended from Arthur’s Pass National Park to the northern boundaries of the Mt Cook and Westland National Parks. The team consisted of Don Prouting, Senior Field Officer and myself, accompanied by a forester and Dave Norton, the local Environmental Ranger from NZFS Harihari. Dave was the most knowledgeable of the study area of all of us. Each week for 8 weeks, or so, we flew into the headwaters of a catchment and then slowly worked our way down river to the nearest road end. We had the most unbelievable run of fine weather, from memory, we had the sum total of 1½ wet days. We saw amazing country. The highlight for me was the Garden of Allah and Eden in the head of the Whataroa catchment.

I transferred to Dunedin later in 1980, and missed out on having to be part of the report write-up.

Exchange with the Tasmanian National Parks and Wildlife Service

In 1979, I was lucky to be selected as the first New Zealand ranger to go to Tasmania as a participant in an exchange programme between Tasmanian National Parks and Wildlife Service and New Zealand Department of Lands and Survey. The exchange was to last for 6 months, but I managed to cut it short to 5 months so that I could be home for the grand opening of the Ross Goldfields Walkway.

Conclusion

Whilst the early years of my time on the West Coast was beset with a real lack of staff, resources and money, the situation gradually improved as Lands and Survey steadily increased funding for reserves work nationally. At the time of my departure, staff resources and money were at a realistic level.

The lack of resources to do the job forced us to be creative. We were, at times, able to tap into funding for Crown Land Management. We also benefitted from our extensive use of the PEP Scheme with the Department of Labour covering associated overheads.

We also formed very beneficial relationships with Local Authorities. I want to place on record, the help assistance we obtained from Westland County Council and in particular, thank the County Engineer, Jon Olsen, for his support. Projects such as the Ross Goldfields Walkways and the salvage of the Lake Mahinapua Steamer would not have progressed the way they did without the Westland County Council assistance.

We, in Reserves, avoided the angst that our National Park colleagues suffered from over contentious issues, such as the argument over the future of the Waikukupa and Okarito State Forests.

We had a lot of support from local communities for the projects we completed.

The West Coast is a small community and one of the lessons I learned was that you are known to a lot of people, I think they judged us on what we did.

I also honestly believe, whilst I enjoyed living and working in Arthur’s Pass National Park, my time in Reserves in Hokitika contained much more job satisfaction, challenges and opportunities for a young ranger to blossom and grow. It was a terrific experience.