Healthpost Nature Trust 'thrilled' by surprise $100,000 donation to conservation

Tuesday, 9 June 2020

The new Ecosanctuary, protected by a predator-free fence and the work of the Department of Conservation and volunteers, at Cape Farewell in Golden Bay.

Healthpost Nature Trust is 'thrilled' by a surprise $100,000 donation to its conservation projects.

HealthPost Nature Trust runs the newly opened Wharariki Ecosanctuary and a number of conservation projects in Golden Bay.

The community conservation effort has been working to restore a safe home for sea birds, rare native plants, giant snails and geckos with a 200-metre long fence protecting three hectares of the coastal headland.

Healthpost Nature Trust chair Peter Butler is 'thrilled' at Lonestar Farms surprise donation.

Lonestar Farms, owned by Golden Bay multi-millionaire Tom Sturgess, has announced that he and his wife Heather Sturgess, are donating $100,000 this year to the trust, and significant sums in following years.

Apart from trust founder HealthPost’s donations, the donation by Lonestar Farms is the largest ever individual donation.

Lonestar leases the farmland in the DOC’s Puponga Farm Park, which more than 100,000 annual visitors need to pass through to experience the Wharariki Ecosanctuary and Farm Park’s iconic Wharariki Beach and Farewell Spit.

* Teeming with creatures great and small in Wharariki 'Badlands'

Tom Sturgess, seen here with some of his Indian motorcycles, has committed to giving more support in the coming years.

* New sanctuary to boost seabird numbers at Cape Farewell

HealthPost Nature Trust Chair Peter Butler said Sturgess had always been a trust supporter, but the significant donation was a 'welcome surprise'.

“We have ambitious plans for the sanctuary, and Tom’s generosity in matching HealthPost’s donations this year will really help us achieve them,' he said.

'We didn’t expect this level of support, and we are very thankful. Among other things, it will certainly help with the reintroduction of fluttering shearwater and diving petrel to the mainland, an expensive project we intend to start this summer.”

He said Sturgess was willing to retire a few hectares of grazing land when they constructed a stainless steel predator proof fence across Cape Farewell headland to create Wharariki Ecosanctuary.

'The farm is also an important firebreak for the area, protecting Farewell Spit, which was routinely burned before it came under DOC protection.'

Butler said that with enough funding, the trust wanted to recreate an uninterrupted natural waterway from the foothills to the sea.

'A complete ecosystem for the native species already there, and the ones we plan to introduce. This is rare, but particularly so in the middle of a working farm.”

Sturgess said that given the farm’s location, it has always co-existed with conservation.

“We are fully supportive of HealthPost Nature Trust’s work, as they are of ours.”

The Puponga Farm welcomed the public during lambing, unlike many other farms with public tracks, he said.

“We love giving the public a chance to see our farm animals, as well as see the many native species that live in the area. It is a unique experience, having farms and conservation co-exist so well together.”

Lonestar Farms has committed to continued and significant support in the coming years, he said.