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Early in the 1800s surveyors had finished the task of dividing recently acquired land into lots for European settlement. If one had the means, will and strength land was available for breaking in; it was virgin, had a seemingly inexhaustible supply of resources and there for the taking; there were markets for natural and agricultural products; opportunities abounded. Little thought would have been given then to conserving what nature was so copiously providing.

But today conservation is very much in the minds of the residents of Whangarei Heads, that area, roughly speaking, to the south-east of a line drawn from Parua Bay to Pataua.

In the 1960s the late George Tiller and Yo Sands, together with Len McCullough of Urquhart Bay, had the foresight to ensure that land belonging to Portland Cement became gazetted as part of the Bream Head Scenic Reserve. George Tiller also gave part of his Reotahi farm to the Whangarei District Council as a reserve (Tiller Park). In both cases these men were keen to see areas kept for public enjoyment, free from urbanisation.

The Whangarei Heads Citizens’ Association and the Urquhart Bay Rate Payers’ Association have both in recent times spear headed effective resistance to industries which have posed a polluting threat or which would have been totally incompatible with the area’s iconic beauty.

Heads people are fortunate to have conservation reserves at Kauri Mountain, along the foreshore of Ocean Beach, at Bream Head and Mt. Manaia, and at Darch point. While most of these are administered by the Department of Conservation, local people are involved. The Bream Head Conservation Trust has been established as a group of people who are keen to support DOC in the restoration of that scenic reserve’s ecology.

Another 10 Landcare groups are working on both private and public land at various aspects of restoration from the eradication of animal pests and noxious weeds to planting native trees in projects of reforestation. Local people are involve in research into kiwi numbers and in the release of kiwi in places where predator numbers have been reduced sufficiently to give them an even chance of survival. Others at Taiharuru are specialising in mangrove and estuary rehabilitation. Through the persistent initiative of Kamo High School students a marine reserve has been set up at Motukaroro near Reotahi.

Landcare groups have sought, with a modest degree of success, funding for their projects from the Whangarei District Council, the Northland Regional Council, DOC, the N.Z. Landcare Trust, and others.

People who live at Whangarei Heads value the environment in which they live and are taking care of it. A recent increase in the sighting of bellbirds could be an indication that their efforts are paying off. A pair of bellbirds successfully fledged their chick in the Bream Head Scenic Reserve in 2006, the first documented successful breeding by bellbirds in Northland since the late 1800s.