Lee Busby

When Lee was ready to leave school at Whakatane at the end of 1963, and looking for work, he wrote letters to the NZ Forest Service, NZ Wildlife Service and Lands and Survey National Parks. The first response was from Te Urewera National Park (in those days each park was managed independently) offering him a job for the Christmas school holidays, which was then extended to the end of the financial year, then extended again for a year.

Lee started in the Park on 7th January 1964 and on 1st April 1965 he was appointed as a trainee ranger.

As a Trainee Ranger. His first year was spent at Fiordland, the second at the NZ Forest Service Ranger School at Reefton, the third at the NZ Forest Service Ranger School at Rotorua, and the fourth several months each at Fiordland, Aoraki Mount Cook and Abel Tasman National Parks.

In 1969 Lee was appointed Ranger at Urewera, then Ranger at Fiordland, then Senior Ranger at Fox Glacier, then Senior Ranger at Tongariro based at Tūrangi until DOC was formed. He remained in the same office at Tūrangi, then again in the same office when DOC was restructured and he was appointed Operations Manager for the Tongariro Taupō Conservancy until 1997, when he was made redundant following the Cave Creek tragedy, after 34 years working in national parks. His second career was in Health and Safety Management (over 20 years). Lee retired in 2022.