CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S REPORT

Although our annual report is prepared at the same time each year, the time since I prepared my update for the last annual report feels like it has gone by faster than usual.

It has been another year of being agile, with Covid continuing to affect many of us. In most instances, positive cases among the team and in our wider communities caused disruption closer to home than a national lockdown. Through this, we were able to make some changes to the way we go about our day-to-day lives and how we operate as an organisation, including remote working becoming more commonplace for our head office team.

We are hopefully coming through the other side of the pandemic and while it was disruptive, Covid did provide an opportunity for us to kick off additional projects, all funded through the Government’s Jobs for Nature programme. Our four-year work programme for these projects started at the beginning of this year and we have engaged new team members to support them, including a project manager and an administrator.

In the field, we have engaged new reps to fill gaps left by members of our team who decided to hang up their regional representative hats over the past year. We are also looking to increase our overall number of regional representatives and make some changes to region boundaries due to the growth in the number of covenants in each region and new protection enquiries.

I would like to acknowledge the contributions that our outgoing regional representatives, Bill Wallace, Lynette Benson and Rob Fraser have made in their regions and to QEII generally. All three left big shoes to fill, although in Bill’s case, he is still part of the working QEII family, as he has taken on a role managing QEII owned properties, which has been another area of focus for the year.

The biggest property in our portfolio, Remarkables Station, is now in QEII ownership thanks to the generosity and foresight of Dick and Jillian Jardine. Going forward, management of this property will be led by the Remarkables Station National Trust Ltd board, and we welcomed Nita Smith to our team to take on the role of Whakatipu Relationship Manager to assist with the additional work the property will bring to the region. Most of the property will be protected by a covenant and QEII’s intention is to continue operating the property as a working farm, while looking to incorporate open space, environmental and cultural values in the long-term management of the Station. Sadly, in late-July 2022, we farewelled one of QEII’s great champions with the passing of Dr Brian Molloy. Brian was unofficially known as the ‘godfather’ of QEII National Trust and had a decades-long association with QEII, serving on our board of directors from 1989 to 1998 and then as our high-country representative until his retirement in 2012.

Brian had a great affection for QEII and the landowners who contribute to what we do. On his departure from his high-country rep role, Brian wrote, “the QEII family and its achievements are a standout both nationally and globally and I have benefitted from my time with the family, especially our unique network of inspiring landholders.” His impact at QEII continued well after he retired as he was known for being deeply caring and generous towards his colleagues, sharing his passion for conservation and botany with others.

The financial result for the year a smaller deficit than what was budgeted, which is pleasing. But I am very much aware that the underlying operating position for QEII remains loss-making and unsustainable. We need to address this by adding new revenue streams, such that we can continue to meet demand for our help.

New protection and monitoring visits remain our core work. Over the past year, we have approved 170 new covenants and registered 104, protecting an additional 2,264 hectares and our regional reps have undertaken 1,896 covenant monitoring visits – all impressive numbers when you think about the continued pandemic disruptions and changes to the regional rep team.

An annual report is about numbers and our numbers show that 2021/2022 has been another productive year for the Trust. However, all the numbers, achievements and stories of new protection that you are about to read could not have been done without our regional representatives and head office team. I would like to round off my update with a big thank you to our people for all their work over the past year and to all the landowners who chose to protect their special places with a QEII open space covenant.

Dan Coup

CHIEF EXECUTIVE