The beauty of bush, beach, mountains, rolling hills, plains and lakes is all around us in its variety and grandeur. We have space to move and breathe.
One of Dunedin’s verdant treasures is the Town Belt, the girdle that encircles the inner city – always present and sometimes overlooked.
Mostly, it is associated with the bush from about Woodhaugh Gardens through to the Southern Cemetery. Technically, it embraces more; around the Dunedin Botanic Garden to Ōpoho Park in the north and encompassing the Oval in the South.
The Town Belt has particular relevance at the moment because the Dunedin City Council is seeking feedback on its management.
The Dunedin Town Belt reserve management programme, adopted in 2007, is being reviewed. Feedback via the council’s website closes next Monday. There will also be the chance for further comment when a new draft management programme is consulted on later this year.
Otago Anniversary Day was marked yesterday, making this an especially good time to think about the Town Belt.
As the Dunedin Amenities Society explains it, the Town Belt history is intertwined with the joint venture of the New Zealand Company and the Lay Association of the Free Church of Scotland.
New Zealand Company principal Edward Gibbon Wakefield believed that open space and the provision of natural areas would alleviate slums, disease and crime. The Wakefield settlements of Adelaide and Wellington also have town belts.
By March 1848, the Otago settlers led by William Cargill and the Rev Thomas Burns arrived. Captain Cargill, like Wakefield, believed a higher moral order could be achieved among new settlers in the isolation of a pristine wilderness. The Town Belt then was the border between urban town and rural pastoralism.
In a sense, higher virtues are also attributed today to nature and wilderness and their benefits, whether as lungs of the city, for biodiversity or for “forest bathing”.
After the New Zealand Company encountered financial trouble, control of the Town Belt land passed through various management before settling in 1877 with the Corporation of Dunedin.
There were pressures from quarrying, timber interests, squatting and road development between 1848 and 1900.
It would seem many citizens did not take the reserve for granted. An attempt in 1866 to raise city funds via Town Belt leases prompted protests and a public outcry. A Town Belt Preservation Committee was established.
Another public protest concerned the use of the Town Belt for the proposed Northern Cemetery in 1872.
And in 1887 the Otago Daily Times, responding to public concern, reported: “It is high time to arrest the process of denudation that is going on in the Town Belt and to make it more available as a place of recreation for the people than it is at present”.
The Amenities Society itself, (formed in 1888) successfully petitioned Parliament to stop occupation of the reserve by the city council in 1890.
Attempts at exploitation through the 20th century were resisted via citizen concern and media coverage.
These days, the Town Belt is recognised and appreciated for its recreational, landscape, amenity, ecological, cultural, historical and educational values.
It covers 202 hectares and includes 22 sports grounds. Many commute through, relax in and exercise about the Town Belt.
Illegal dumping of rubbish is a regular problem, although, thanks to the ease of taking phone evidence, those doing so are taking higher risks.
Pest management, both plants and animals, is always a challenge. Safety, signs, traffic, access and maintenance have been identified by the council as issues.
The popularity of the regular guided traverse of the Town Belt speaks to how it is appreciated by at least a portion of Dunedin people.
The city can be pleased by the way its residents since 1848 have supported the Town Belt and the amenity it provides.
Present generations should continue that tradition, savouring its benefits and never taking it for granted.
