Gus Garaway
From radio repeater stations to trapping and vehicle repair, ‘Mr Fix-It’ does it all
Paul ('Gus') Garaway is one of our valued volunteers and his roots with the Trust run deep. When FLRT Chairman Simon Hall acquired our Pohokura property Gus was on hand to help our forest manager Pete Shaw scope it out before any infrastructure had been established. Over the years, he has witnessed our growth first-hand and played a part in most of our many initiatives.
Likewise, Gus' partnership with Pete goes back decades - the two men have been knocking around the back-blocks together for what seems like a lifetime. Certainly since they both left school.
Gus' background is in electronics - he is a radio engineer. For the past 10-15 years his focus has been on land mobile communications. While he was a member of Search and Rescue (LandSAR) he helped to introduce a fixed radio repeater into neighbouring Te Urewera to assist and enable search operations in that rugged and hard-to-access part of the country.
Gus' communication expertise really came to the fore while the Trust was establishing operations at both Maungataniwha and Pohokura. He has since modernised and expanded the entire communication system on both properties. Part of this work involved upgrading the radio repeater used at Maungataniwha and establishing, for the first time, a dedicated communication link between both properties. This helps to ensure the safety of the FLRT team as they work across our expansive properties and their challenging terrain.
He was also instrumental in establishing radio comms at the Trust's property at Lake McKerrow in Fiordland.
Beyond communications, Gus brings a wealth of practical skills. A self-taught mechanic, he can often be found tinkering with and repairing the Trust’s equipment, from side-by-sides to complex engine rebuilds.
He spent all of his younger days hunting both recreationally, and commercially as a possum trapper. This background comes in handy with the pest and predator control work we do on both properties and he is always neck-deep in setting, clearing and maintaining rat monitors and mustelid traps, or shooting the feral goats, dogs and cats that seem hell-bent on undoing all the great conservation work done by the FLRT team.
He helps with trapping and pest control in areas that aren't covered by either Ian Roberts and his mate Lance Johansen, or by Mike Walker.
In his early involvement with the Trust Gus spent most of his time at Pohokura. Lately, the lion's share of his volunteer hours are spent at Maungataniwha.
"There is so much going on at Maungataniwha and it all needs support," Gus said. "I find the variety of work really stimulating, whether it’s helping to grow kākābeak in the protected 'exclosures' so that their seed can be used for propagation in order to keep the species genetically viable, or clambering down river-beds to find and count the elusive and endangered native Blue Duck, or whio."
Gus also enjoys the odd expedition to fossick for fossils (Maungataniwha is home to the stretch of riverbed that has yielded the single largest treasure-trove of New Zealand paleontological discoveries) as well as the more social upsides of his involvement with the property - a little bit of hunting and trout-fishing in the Waiau River from time to time.
He gets to help with kiwi locating and the egg-lifts we do as part of Operation Nest Egg, too, but he's brutally honest about the extent of his enthusiasm for this important work.
"I've got to the point in my life now when I do enjoy my sleep more than the experience of waking up at 2am to go out into the bush to find eggs while the dads are out foraging.”
So what drives Gus to keep volunteering for the Trust, doing what he does?
It's the same story that most of our volunteers tell. It's about the freedom they feel when they're out in the bush. It's about knowing they're doing something worthwhile. And it's about the excitement of the projects they get to work on.
"I've always like exploring", he said. "In my work for the Trust I get to see parts of the country that I've never seen before. Outdoor living, new country, exploring and camaraderie - these are all the things that appeal. Along with a tremendous feeling of involvement and belonging.”
Gus is certainly a local boy. He was brought up in Ohope Beach and still lives in Whakatane. He likes to do a bit of flying as a co-pilot in microlight aircraft based at his local sport aircraft club.
He works part-time for the Whakatane Radio Telephone Users Association, an organisation that by rights should have become redundant but which has adapted and evolved to remain relevant in the digital communication age. In the early days, individual companies like trucking firms would join the association and benefit from access to its radios and its network of repeaters - allowing employees to remain in touch on a real-time basis. Local government would use the association's technology to monitor river levels, rainfall and other environmental factors.
These days the larger companies now have their own exclusive communication networks based on digital technology and the internet, Starlink is a great example.
But recent experience during major weather-based emergency events - Cyclone Gabrielle being a case in point - threw a spotlight on the importance of a robust, resilient stand-by system of region-wide communication. When cell-tower batteries failed, or fibre links were severed by land-slips, it was the old technology - lovingly cared for and maintained by Gus and his colleagues at the Whakatane Radio Telephone Users Association - that came to the rescue.
New Zealand owes a lot to volunteers of all types who keep any number of services running, particularly in the regions. Likewise, New Zealand conservation and the many organisations working day in and day out to make a difference, owe a significant debt of gratitude to people like Gus.
Thank you, Gus. Tumeke!
