Help conserve Putaringamotu: Riccarton Bush

A remarkable 7.8-hectare remnant Kahikatea forest, situated just 3km from the Christchurch City centre, Pūtaringamotu/Riccarton Bush needs your help.

Open free to the public during daylight hours, the bush includes almost 900 metres of flat, relatively accessible tracks. Home to numerous native birds such as kereru, korimako, pīwakawaka and riroriro, and to many native insects and geckos, it is protected by a predator-proof fence.

Significant both ecologically and culturally, it is the largest remnant of alluvial podocarp forest on the lower Canterbury Plains and Banks Peninsula. A key mahinga kai site for Ngai Tūāhuriri, it is also the place of first permanent European settlement in Ōtautahi.

Gifted to the people of Christchurch by the Deans family in November 1914, it is run by the Riccarton Bush Trust and its operational staff. The Trust, in conjunction with the Christchurch Foundation, is now raising funds to upgrade and enhance the bush.

The project aims to:

• Integrate Ngāi Tūāhuriri narratives, values and associations with the bush through design, art, entrance experience and interpretation
• Upgrade the track system and infrastructure
• Develop areas to support large group visits
• Provide interpretation to educate, engage and encourage participation

“This special place, this link to our past, with its unique sights, sounds, smells, culture and history must be protected
and conserved for the people, not only of Waitaha Canterbury but all of Aotearoa. Pūtaringamotu/Riccarton Bush is a place of living history, a gift to future generations and it must be protected,” says the Trust.

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