Former Forest Service workers gather for reunion on West Coast

The New Zealand Forest Service was created in 1919. Photo / File

At least 50 former Forest Service workers from the West Coast will be back in Hokitika this weekend, 30 years after the government department was disbanded.

The New Zealand Forest Service was created in 1919 to control the cutting of indigenous forests and establish forest plantation as an alternative source of timber. It would be a major employer on the West Coast until it ended in 1987.

The Forest Service conservancy building, on the corner of Sewell Street and Gibson Quay, subsequently became the Department of Conservation headquarters, although it has been closed in recent years due to earthquake concerns.

The building will be the meeting point for ex-staff on Saturday before a revised interpretation panel with additional information provided by former conservator of forests Ed Kearns will be unveiled.

The panel - erected on Gibson Quay and opposite the old conservancy office and forestry compound - gives a short history of the department which for 68 years was responsible for administering the Forest Act, Forests and Rural Fires Act, Mining Act, Wild Animal Control Act, Timber preservation Act and other government legislation.

Former forestry worker Rex Keenan, who worked for the Forest Service for 14 years and was a field supervisor when it was wound up, said the closure was a huge blow for the region at the time.

Some people found work with the newly-formed Department of Conservation or Timberlands, which were formed out of the restructure, but a large number were put out of work and left the West Coast.

Reunion co-organiser Anthea Keenan said hundreds of jobs were also lost from the Railways, Ministry of Works, Post Office and coalmines at the same time.

Thirty years on, ex-workers from as far away as Hamilton and Nelson will be returning for a weekend of reminiscing over the next three days.

"Jim Staton with be acting compere for the weekend programme starting (this) evening, where both he and Cam Barrowman will open the weekend of reminiscing," Mrs Keenan said.

"The likes of John Ward and Lindsay Arthur are teed up to speak Saturday evening and no doubt a few yarns will be spun," she said.

"Just over 50 people have confirmed, some travelling from afar to meet up again, 30 years since the government restructured the service."

The reunion is an encore from a larger one held five years ago on the 25th anniversary, when about 200 people got back together.

- Hokitika Guardian