Having spent the past 50 years contributing to conservation projects around the Wakatipu Basin, Mr Kennett, who has also had a longstanding involvement in Land Search and Rescue (LandSAR), has become a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to conservation and search and rescue.
Since the mid-1970s, Mr Kennett has held conservation roles, latterly as a principal ranger for heritage and visitor assets with the Department of Conservation, undertaking urgent repair and preservation work above and beyond his paid duties at damaged heritage and recreational sites.
He played a crucial role in the preservation of the Arrowtown Chinese Settlement, the Whakaari Scheelite mining assets, near Glenorchy, the Kawarau Suspension Bridge, which became the birthplace of commercial bungy jumping, Macetown, Skippers, Bullendale and the Kawarau Mining Centre.
Mr Kennett also had a significant role in the protection and management of Te Koroka special area, near Glenorchy, in partnership with mana whenua.
Mr Kennett was also a key driver of the management of the Routeburn Great Walk, Rees-Dart and Greenstone Caples Tracks before they were declared tracks of national significance and had also managed several Wakatipu walking track developments and initiatives.
Additionally, he had a lengthy involvement with LandSAR, including being the Wakatipu LandSAR committee chairman from 2011 to 2017.
He was the senior non-police representative on the search and rescue incident management team in the Wakatipu Basin, through which he had contributed to numerous significant search and recovery field operations.
Those included being incident controller for the catastrophic Blue Duck aircraft crash in August 1989, in the Dart Valley. In that crash the pilot and nine passengers, on a scenic flight from Wānaka to Milford Sound, were all killed.
Richard William Kennett
Glenorchy
MNZM
Conservation and search and rescue
