Residents and dog trial enthusiasts - several of whom were in town for the South Island and New Zealand sheep dog trial championships at Alpha Burn Station - gathered for the official unveiling of the 2.7m-high steel statue of a shepherd and his dog below the site where dog trials were formerly held in the town.
The statue commemorates the town's distinction of holding the world's first recorded dog trials, as early as 1867 at Dog Match Flat, Cardrona Valley Rd.
Wanaka Collie Dog Club secretary Vicki McRae, who spearheaded the project, thanked the Upper Clutha Historical Records Society for its support, along with the 1999 musterers' reunion, which had funded the bulk of the project.
New Zealand Sheep Dog Trial Association president John Harvey, of Martinborough, unveiled a plaque and said it was fitting the "magnificent" statue was being celebrated this week "when there are 500 of the best sheep dogs in New Zealand and probably the world gathered here in Wanaka".
He said it was an informal tradition for North Island competitors coming to their first South Island dog trials to have a photograph taken, with their dogs, at the dog statue near the Church of the Good Shepherd at Lake Tekapo.
"From now on, given that this statue commemorates the first trial that was ever held in the world, I can see over the years a lot of triallists coming here to get their picture taken with their dogs," Mr Harvey said.
Landowner Lynden Cleugh thanked Mrs McRae for being the "driving force" behind the statue and sticking with the project in the face of resource consent challenges.
"If it wasn't for her tenacity, it wouldn't have been done."
