Paparua councillors view Harewood landscaping

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32778, 1 December 1971, Page 18

Paparua councillors view Harewood landscaping

“We are proud to have this property in our county. I would say that this is one of the outstanding features of Christchurch.” The chairman of the Paparua County Council (Mr D. H. Warren) said this when he and councillors inspected, at the week-end, the Isaac Construction Company’s property at Harewood which won for the firm the 1971 landscape award of the New Zealand Association of Landscape Designers for

“outstanding contribution to New Zealand landscape.” “The company has made, what were once industrial quarries into beautiful ornamental lakes stocked with fish and teeming with wildlife,” Mr Warren said. “The lay-out of the beautiful gardens, the landscaping and tree-planting makes the property really perfect,” Mr Warren said.

The regrassing and general attractiveness of the property were outstanding, and a lot of time and enthusiasm must have been put into the whole project, he said. “I have been living in Paparua county for a long time, but I had no idea of the splendid job done in restoration of the shingle pits here and I don’t think the members of our council had, either, until we came here and saw it for ourselves,” Mr Warren said. “The whole development has set a precedent for shingle operators to do the same thing.” A project of such standard must take the lead in giving an example in conservation, said Mr Warren. While he would not expect that all shingle operators would aim at such a high standard of reinstatement, he

thought the project would, in the future, bring the need for such redevelopment to the fore, Mr Warren said.

Councillors were shown the wildlife population which gained for the company a class B zoological garden license. Mr Warren said: “This is a wonderful asset for the people of Canterbury.” Councillors inspected some of the 70 or more peacocks which have free range over the property. They showed particular interest in a pair of Cape Barren geese of which, according to the

noted naturalist, Peter Scott, there only about 6000 left in the world.

Councillors also saw a new hatching of white swan cygnets and inspected the ornamental ponds which, according to zoo authorities, appear to have become one of the most successfull white swan breeding areas in the Southern Hemisphere.

With the councillors were the Paparua County Clerk (Mr A. Kelly) and the County Engineer (Mr A. Dyhrberg), as well as members from tiie Homby and Sockbum county towns.