Photo and article courtesy of the Bay Harbour News, Thursday 12 December 2024.

A new bench seat at the top of Urumau Reserve has been dedicated to the late Gary Broker (1945-2010). The Lyttelton Reserves Committee's community representative Cliff Mason said it was "a fitting spot to contemplate the power of one man's inspiration'. Broker was a conservationist, teacher and council employee whose actions helped to create Urumau and Whakaraupō reserves which are managed by the committee today. Initially, Broker grew native plants and established them in a gully near his Foster Terrace property.

"With the success of this pioneering work, before eco sourcing and native plant nurseries were common, he foresaw the possibility of restoring the degraded pasture of Reserve 68 on the hillside above to native bush," said Mason. "When a cash-strapped council considered selling this land for housing development, Gary joined with other local residents in opposition. As a result of this combined effort, Urumau and the larger Whakaraupō to the west were formally gazetted as reserves in 2005." Broker had been a valued member of the reserves committee which held a dedication ceremony on Monday evening (9/12/2024). "Successive years of planting on Urumau have now partly realised Gary Broker's dream, and the view from the new seat extends across the spreading native bush to Lyttelton township and the head of the harbour beyond" Mason said."