Wellington Natural Heritage Trust

Help us protect iconic native birds in Wellington city by maintaining a safe haven just outside the Zealandia fence.

Wellington

The Trust owns Long Gully Bush Reserve, which runs between Zealandia and South Karori Road. Partnering with neighbours has added other parcels of land to give a total of 107 ha under the Trust's management. This is the largest block of privately-owned protected land in Wellington. The property provides a buffer zone around the sanctuary in which pest animals are intensively controlled.

Considerable progress has been made in achieving the objectives of our management plan – to encourage native forest regeneration and protect native birds spilling over from Zealandia. A comprehensive weeding programme is underway and a network of traps keeps pest animal numbers at low levels.

This effort has been rewarded with a wide range of iconic native birdlife present: tui, kereru, korimako, hihi, tieke, kākāriki and kākā all seen in good numbers.

Your support will help avoid losing the significant gains we've made. The goat-proof fence must be maintained, the weeding continued and the traps serviced.

More about us

Our Trust was established in 1999 to progress local strategic conservation work and purchase a 65-ha property (Long Gully Bush Reserve) next to Zealandia in Wellington. Several neighbours have contributed parts of their properties to be managed by us and most of the land is protected by QEII Open Space covenants. We fund intensive pest plant and animal control, which is enabling the forest to regenerate naturally and provide a safe haven for rare and threatened birds.

Other page links

We’ve reached our target!! Ka rawe koutou!! 21 December 2025

Thanks to your amazing generosity we now have donations or pledges for all the money we need to complete the purchase of the old-growth forest in South Mākara.

In the last 10 days, more than 500 donations have contributed just on $50,000. With the dollar-for-dollar matching from another generous donor, we have reached the $98,000 goal!

A massive thanks to everyone who’s contributed, shared our posts and talked to their friends and family about this opportunity.

Whether you gave $2, $20, $100, $500, $1,000 or more, you’ve all made a lasting contribution to securing this very special land for the future.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! We are humbled, awed and absolutely blown away by your support and enthusiasm. Thank you again everyone. What a team!

Share this update

Read 1 more update

On average, fundraisers pay just 2% to use Givealittle. This is one of the lowest effective fees in New Zealand fundraising. We charge a 5% platform fee to cover the cost of running the platform. Because most donors choose to top up their donation to cover this fee, the effective cost paid by fundraisers is about 2%. That means around 98 cents of every dollar raised goes to the cause. Learn More

Latest donations

Barbara on 31 Dec 2025

$5,000

Wellington Natural Heritage Trust Inc

Dear Barbara. That is a most generous donation for which we are so grateful! Please note that your donation would be applied to management of the land (which is not an insignificant cost!) rather than the purchase of the property, since we have already have sufficient funds to meet that goal. If this is not your intention please let me know and we will be happy to refund your gift. Again, we are so grateful and encouraged by your commitment to our work! Happy New Year!