Engineering firm strips doors off Pūkaha aviary after $245,000 bill unpaid for months

Pūkaha Mt Bruce National Wildlife Centre has issued an urgent plea for financial help. Photo / Pūkaha National Wildlife Centre

By Mary Argue of RNZ

An aviary at a wildlife sanctuary in financial strife has had its doors stripped in a stoush over an unpaid bill for almost a quarter of a million dollars.

Pūkaha Mt Bruce National Wildlife Centre on the border of Tararua and Wairarapa districts has issued an urgent plea for financial help, without which it faced imminent closure.

At the heart of the plea was an invoice for an under-construction aviary for the endangered shore plover bird.

Board co-chairwoman Mavis Mullins said the breeding sanctuary needed to find $600,000 by the end of the week to avoid shutting its doors, after it was unable to secure funding from major partners, the Department of Conservation and Rangitāne Tū Mai Rā.

Brent Reid, co-director of local Masterton firm BK Engineering, hoped some of that money would be going to him and an outstanding invoice for more than $245,000.

He said Pūkaha commissioned the firm in May 2024 to “construct, repair and refurbish” shore plover aviaries.

The endangered shore plover bird.

Everything was smooth sailing, he said, until the payments stopped in November.

Assurances that payment was imminent kept the construction work going “in good faith” until February this year, he said, but to date no further payments had been made.

In a letter sent on May 29 to the Pūkaha board seen by RNZ, he said the company had taken out loans to keep afloat.

“We are in serious financial difficulties because of Pūkaha. We don’t deserve this.”

Reid said at the end of last week he cleared the worksite and took the doors off the aviary.

“We loaded all the gear in our vehicles ... and we also removed as many doors as we could off the aviary so that it can’t be used.

“We’re beyond caring about what anyone thinks and just need our gear back.”

Ultimately, Reid said he wanted to receive the money that was owed and finish the job, and thought the Department of Conservation (DoC) needed to step in.

“The Government spends money on all sorts of wacky things, but this is something that you can go and see.

“You can touch it, you can feel it, you can see the aviary, you can see it built. It’s not good money after bad, it’s a real thing, and it will save these birds.”

DoC’s operations director for the lower North Island, Alice Heather, said the department was aware of Pūkaha’s financial difficulties.

“We have been working with the Pūkaha board, alongside Rangitāne Tū Mai Rā, since we were made aware of the situation, and continue to explore options.”

She said Pūkaha was an independent charitable trust that, for many years, had delivered great conservation work.

“DoC has not contracted work on the aviaries at Pūkaha. Any queries relating to non-payment of bills or contracts between contractors and Pūkaha National Wildlife Centre should be directed to the Pūkaha Mount Bruce Board.”

The community had supported Pūkaha since it was established in 1962.

Pūkaha overwhelmed by global response to plea for help

Mullins said Pūkaha staff and BK Engineering were the top priority for the immediate $600,000 fundraising effort.

“Our priority is our staff and those creditors because they are people that are known to us. We are working so hard, and they are the priority.”

She said for several months the board had been working with potential investors.

But last week, it “received new information” that left them with “no choice” but to engage Grant Thornton financial advisers.

“We’ve also been in discussion with the Department of Conservation about the payment of outstanding invoices for shore plover aviaries, a nearly completed construction project urgently needed to continue the national programme of protection of this endangered species,” she said.

Mullins denied any suggestion of financial mismanagement and said while negotiations were ongoing to secure funding, every effort was being made to raise capital elsewhere.

She said the community had supported Pūkaha since it was established in 1962 to breed and release endangered native birds, with the takahē – a Fiordland bird once thought extinct – its first species.

“But the current operating model, which includes only part funding of conservation work by the Department of Conservation, with the rest from community funding, is no longer sustainable.”

It had been humbled, she said, by the global response to its plea for financial help.

“Visitors, ex-kaimahi that have worked with us, this weekend the centre has been chocka with whānau coming, wanting to pay full rate rather than their half rate that they’re entitled to, making donations ... It’s been very, very humbling, the response from the community.”

She said the board and management had been communicating to lenders, creditors and staff about the potential closure of Pūkaha, and acknowledged the stress and hurt they were feeling.

She said former board chairman Bob Francis and local businessman Shane McManaway had been brought in to oversee a complete overhaul of the organisation.