Trainee Ranger Scheme by Chris Eden

Over the past couple of weeks  I have been renewing contact with former Trainee Rangers of the 1950's and 60's, attempting to arrange an informal catch-up.

John Charles' amazing memory has filled in the gaps in my knowledge of the earliest part of the Trainee Ranger scheme. The scheme was originally established in 1958 by Ray Cleland when Chief Ranger at Arthurs Pass. Brian Gough (deceased) was the first Trainee, followed by John Charles in 1959. John recalls there was also Geoff Lynn but he discontinued the training due to ill health, according to pat Sheridan.

In the early 1960's, Ray Cleland moved to Wellington to become Supervisor of National Parks. He transported the trainee ranger programme with him and established it as a national scheme under the umbrella of the National Parks Authority (NPA). From 1962 there was a new intake of one or two trainees (16 - 18-year-old boys) each year until 1968. The scheme was administered by Ben Thorpe (as Assistant Supervisor of National Parks) with Ray Cleland's oversight. The scheme ended after Ray Cleland moved to Wanaka (as Chief Ranger Mount Aspiring NP), and Gordon Nichols moved from Westland to Wellington and into the Supervisor's role.

The earlier intakes of NPA trainee rangers spent 2 of their 4 trainee years at Forest Service ranger training schools in Reefton and Rotorua. In 1967 that was reduced to attending just the Forest Service induction course in Rotorua. The rest of their training was on-the-job, moving every 6 months around 7 of the national parks. Some chief rangers and/or their park boards embraced the scheme more enthusiastically than others. In some parks there was good accommodation, in others it was less than rudimentary. The Boards had little incentive to put time or effort into the scheme as they held little if any accountability. Consequently, the trainees were often doing menial work with little or no supervision or training. So, it was not entirely a paid holiday in the mountains. As a result the attrition rate was around 60% overall, and 80% within the intakes that came after the NZFS component of the scheme was dropped.

Nevertheless, most of the former trainees recall great experiences and a lot of good times.

The NPA trainees were (please update this if there were others or the sequence is incorrect.)

 1958. Brian Gough

1959. John Charles

1960. ?

1961. ?

1962. Pat Sheridan

1963. John Gardiner, Alex Buchanan, Geoff Lynn (discontinued due to ill health)

1964. Lee Busby, John Harding

1965. John Baxter

1966. Barry Gapes

1967. Chris Eden, Paul Corridine

1968. Mike Clare

1969. Scheme was abandoned.

I don't recall any 'official' photos of the trainees in that scheme. (There were no uniforms issued to trainees until 1967).