Our Story
The Sanctuary Story
What began as a vision from a handful of passionate conservationists is now a 690ha pest-free forest thriving with reintroduced species. The Brook Waimārama Sanctuary is the largest pest-proof fenced eco-sanctary in the South Island, protecting a unique prisinte beech forest. Flanked by over 6400 kms of National Parks and Department of Conservation estate.
The Sanctuary has a network of over 135km’s of monitoring tracks – 15km’s of these are public walking tracks. Over 300 volunteers contribute to 25,000 plus volunteer hours per annum which sustains our Sanctuary for future generations.
Read the incredible story of the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary.
The First 20 Years
Compiled and written by Mike Murphy, this book tells the story of the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary from its earliest days 20+ years ago; it charts the Sanctuary’s journey beginning as a bold idea of Dr. Dave Butler’s and a coalition of willing partners, notably the Nelson City Council, NMIT, the Department of Conservation and local iwi, through to 2024 where it now stands as “proof of concept” the Sanctuary has come a long way over the last 20 years.
Mike Murphy interviewed dozens of individuals involved in the Sanctuary’s development. Mike recorded and transcribed hundreds of hours of conversations which become the foundation of this book.
The Sanctuary Trust would like to record our thanks to Mike Murphy, Don Fraser, Jane Stevens, Deryk Shaw and Peter Hay (the ‘book club’) for their generosity, dedication and enthusiasm for this project carefully researching and documenting the Sanctuary’s first 20 years.
A limited number of copies have been printed, to order your own copy, contact: info@brooksanctuary.org.nz