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Lands and Survey Rangers' Memoirs
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Alternative NameNZ National Parks and Reserves Rangers' Archive
Collection SummaryA collection of written and taped memoirs from Rangers between 1952 and 1987Description FOREWARD
After his retirement in 1986, John Mazey began compiling material for a book on the work of national park and reserve rangers. John was uniquely qualified for this task; he had been Chief Ranger of Tongariro National Park and then Supervising Ranger based at Head Office in Wellington. This latter job put him in contact with rangers, their work and aspirations across the full spectrum of the department of Lands and Survey's protected area activities. It also closely involved him with the National Parks Authority, the Boards of that time and various interest groups.
John wrote to many rangers asking for contributions towards the book and responses to this resulted in his producing initial drafts covering seven national parks, overseas secondments, training and Head Office work. However, he was disappointed in the overall response and this, coupled with health problems, caused the work to be shelved.
At a reunion of ex-rangers at Tatum Park in 2004 it was decided to carry on where John left off. A core working group was set up: Paul Green, Bruce Jefferies, Rex Mossman, Wally Sander, Pat Sheridan and Geoff Rennison (co-ordinator.) I quote from Pat's notes on the meeting: "Prepare a plan for a book that tells the story of national parks and reserves rangers between 1952 and 1987. It will feature anecdotal stories of ranger experiences in association with a chronological outline of major events and issues that took place in the evolution and management of national parks and reserves." Subsequently Des Williams was co-opted onto the group by virtue of his journalistic experience.
Having obtained John Mazey's writings plus a lot of archival material of possible relevance, the group set to work. Letters or e-mails were sent to all-ex-rangers for whom we had contact details, outlining our aims and soliciting written "memoirs." The results this time were encouraging and a lot of material was soon gathered and collated. Later on, the Stout Trust's and Lotto's offer of funding, consequent upon our tape-recording ex-rangers for their archival purposes, saw some wonderful conversations recorded in various parts of the country. These were added to the rapidly-growing archive. We decided in June 2008 to issue this archive as a stand-alone document, while keeping the publishing of an illustrated, edited book an option for future years. The original 15 oral histories will be given to the National Library and the relevant copies will be sent to each DOC Conservancy office for their historic records.
Thanks are due to the following:
All those ex-rangers and/or wives who either committed their memories to paper or talked into a microphone.
Lotto and the Stout Trust, our major sources of funds.
All those who made initial donations to get us up and running - the first couple of years' work would have been difficult without your help.
Helen Rennison, who spent many hours (a) transcribing taped conversations into written text, (b) typing handwritten memoirs and (c) scanning early typed contributions. From this work the archive's structure was produced.
Geoff Rennison, co-ordinator, on behalf of the organising group, 10 August 2008
Collection SummaryA collection of written and taped memoirs from Rangers between 1952 and 1987Description FOREWARDAfter his retirement in 1986, John Mazey began compiling material for a book on the work of national park and reserve rangers. John was uniquely qualified for this task; he had been Chief Ranger of Tongariro National Park and then Supervising Ranger based at Head Office in Wellington. This latter job put him in contact with rangers, their work and aspirations across the full spectrum of the department of Lands and Survey's protected area activities. It also closely involved him with the National Parks Authority, the Boards of that time and various interest groups.
John wrote to many rangers asking for contributions towards the book and responses to this resulted in his producing initial drafts covering seven national parks, overseas secondments, training and Head Office work. However, he was disappointed in the overall response and this, coupled with health problems, caused the work to be shelved.
At a reunion of ex-rangers at Tatum Park in 2004 it was decided to carry on where John left off. A core working group was set up: Paul Green, Bruce Jefferies, Rex Mossman, Wally Sander, Pat Sheridan and Geoff Rennison (co-ordinator.) I quote from Pat's notes on the meeting: "Prepare a plan for a book that tells the story of national parks and reserves rangers between 1952 and 1987. It will feature anecdotal stories of ranger experiences in association with a chronological outline of major events and issues that took place in the evolution and management of national parks and reserves." Subsequently Des Williams was co-opted onto the group by virtue of his journalistic experience.
Having obtained John Mazey's writings plus a lot of archival material of possible relevance, the group set to work. Letters or e-mails were sent to all-ex-rangers for whom we had contact details, outlining our aims and soliciting written "memoirs." The results this time were encouraging and a lot of material was soon gathered and collated. Later on, the Stout Trust's and Lotto's offer of funding, consequent upon our tape-recording ex-rangers for their archival purposes, saw some wonderful conversations recorded in various parts of the country. These were added to the rapidly-growing archive. We decided in June 2008 to issue this archive as a stand-alone document, while keeping the publishing of an illustrated, edited book an option for future years. The original 15 oral histories will be given to the National Library and the relevant copies will be sent to each DOC Conservancy office for their historic records.
Thanks are due to the following:
All those ex-rangers and/or wives who either committed their memories to paper or talked into a microphone.
Lotto and the Stout Trust, our major sources of funds.
All those who made initial donations to get us up and running - the first couple of years' work would have been difficult without your help.
Helen Rennison, who spent many hours (a) transcribing taped conversations into written text, (b) typing handwritten memoirs and (c) scanning early typed contributions. From this work the archive's structure was produced.
Geoff Rennison, co-ordinator, on behalf of the organising group, 10 August 2008
Collection
Lands and Survey Rangers' Memoirs. National Parks and Reserves Rangers Archive, accessed 21/03/2026, https://parkrangersnz.recollectcms.com/nodes/view/354