Ten Upper Clutha community groups made their case for a slice of Queenstown Lakes District Council’s (QLDC) Community Fund yesterday (Wednesday May 14).

The fund, which has $180,000 to allocate district-wide for the 2025-2026 year, supports charities, clubs, and not-for-profit organisations doing good in the community.

Councillors and the mayor heard from groups addressing a range of issues from sport and emergency preparedness to biodiversity and senior housing.

Aspiring Athletics Club president Kirsten Wyatt told councillors the volunteer-run club was struggling with ground hire costs at the Wānaka Recreation Centre, which she said exceeded the club’s operating budget.

“We’re paying $3,500 a year [and] there is no other athletics club in Otago that pays what we pay,” Kirsten said.

The club has grown from 35 members in 2018 to more than 150 today (including rising track star Phoebe Laker) but “it’s just unsustainable for us to pay these amounts”, she said.

Hāwea Wānaka Pony Club president Kathryn Hutchison made a case for assistance with mowing costs at the six-acre Hāwea Domain site, saying reliable maintenance was crucial to keeping their bi-weekly rallies safe and operational.

“[Funding support for mowing] would make a huge difference,” she said.

Predator Free Wānaka representative Guy Kennedy told councillors the organisation (formerly known as Wānaka Backyard Trapping) was “on the front line” of predator management in the Upper Clutha.

Its volunteers remove 800-900 pests from council and Department of Conservation owned land each year and it wants to increase its operations to have “every corner [of Wānaka] trapped”; a 20-year project.

He asked for council support for the funding of a strategic plan which would provide Predator Free Wānaka with information on “the most effective placement of traps, when, which order and how”.

Wānaka Business Chamber chair Jo Learmonth requested operational funding for a Wānaka office space for the organisation, “which we have never had before”.

The space would include staff desks, hot desking, a boardroom, and a training room open to the community, she said.

Emergency preparedness group Wānaka Community Response Group’s deputy chair Matt McPhee asked for funding for radios, which he said would be crucial to the group’s communication plan in the event of a major local emergency. 

“The reality is if there’s a big earthquake we’re on our own… we’re going to have to rely on the community,” he said. “[Funding the radios would be] a very worthwhile investment into the community.”

Councillors also heard from Te Kākano Aotearoa Trust manager Loran Verpillot, who asked for funding to hire contractors for maintenance at its plant nursery.

Each year the trust grows approximately 5,000 native plants at the nursery before planting them on public land, but the maintenance associated with the nursery is costly.

“The work impacts the community at large and the environment,” she told councillors.

Applications were also presented by the Hāwea Charitable Trust (on behalf of the Guardians of Lake Hāwea), Prime Timers Upper Clutha Senior Citizens, Abbeyfield Wānaka House, and the Queenstown & Southern Lakes Highland Pipe Band.

Councillors will deliberate on the applications and funding decisions will be made later in the year.

PHOTO: Te Kakano Aotearoa Trust