It's taken a dedicated team of Kurow locals several years to transform a local river island from a messy landfill into a recreational eco-park.
Gaynor Lines, Mat Bayliss, Sandy Cameron & John Sturgeon Photo: RNZ / Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
Sandy Cameron has been involved in the Kurow Island Restoration Project since the idea was first conceived in 2003.
In 1905, the Waitaki District Council started using the 11-hectare island as a landfill which continued for the next 91 years.
Sandy says even after the landfill was closed people continued to use it as a dumping ground.
"There were car bodies, there was concrete, garden waste, household waste…and people also used to set fire to it so no one would know whose rubbish it was."
Before any remediation work could begin on the land, a management plan needed to be commissioned and approved and then funding sought.
"Back then we really didn't know and appreciate all the hoops we were going to have to jump through to do it," she admits.
With the support of various agencies, the project obtained a grant from the Meridian Energy Waitaki Community Fund.
Since then dozens of volunteers have gradually turned a wasteland littered with rubbish and covered in weeds and gorse into a grassy oasis planted with native trees and bordered by wetlands.
"We would put the word out that there was going to be a working bee and we would have tractors, men with chainsaws…and we'd say 'just go to it boys!'"
Some of the volunteers are now retirees and when they set out they didn't think it was going to be a project for life, but Sandy says it's been very rewarding.
"We've had so much fun, it's been really good for community spirit and it's created a gateway really to Kurow."
