Creek history photos call

Storyboards telling the history and ecology of Wanaka’s Bullock Creek are the next goal of Friends of Bullock Creek, but they have hit a snag in finding historic photos.

Society secretary Roger Gardiner said the organisation planned to have three storyboards placed beside the timber walkway through the former Fish and Game Hatchery Springs land from Stone St to the adjoining Alpha Series subdivision.

He said the storyboards would detail the site’s history, what was living and what was growing in its environs.

Aukaha consultancy had identified a significant pre-European settlement in close proximity to where the society was undertaking major bush clearance and replanting.

In the 1860s, the town’s first school, Pembroke school, and the school residence were built on a 6 acre glebe on the south side of Bullock Creek.

In more recent times the spring-fed Bullock Creek was the main water supply for Wanaka and from 1955 to 2003 Fish & Game operated a trout and salmon hatchery.

Mr Gardiner said the society was "casting the net far and wide" for early photographs of Bullock Creek and of the fish hatchery.

"Sadly, there is very limited photography of the hatchery in operation and if anyone has any photos that might have relevance or connection to the hatchery, the creek or the restoration of the old Fish and Game site, we would be delighted to talk to them."

kerrie.waterworth@odt.co.nz