A man, a mower and a mission
Green-fingered Bryan Fairbairn is on a crusade to restore the Garden City to its former glory, one neglected hectare at a time.
The retiree spends up to 40 hours a week maintaining and pruning forgotten red zone land in Christchurch, clearing cabbage leaves and packing holes with soil in an effort to bring it up to scratch. ‘‘If I can leave it better than when I arrived, I’d say that’s a good day’s work,’’ the 70-year-old volunteer said.
On Tuesday, Fairbairn and his wife, Colleen, were granted $2000 from the Coastal-Burwood Community Board’s discretionary response fund, double what was requested, to supplement the more than $30,000 he has spent out of his own pocket to cover equipment maintenance costs, dumping fees, and buying top soil, gardening supplies and weedkiller.
The funding application, submitted by not-for-profit environmental organisation Keep Christchurch Beautiful on the Fairbairns’ behalf, was for $1000 to help maintain red zone land on the corner of Burwood’s Locksley Ave and New Brighton Rd. Before the earthquakes, the Fairbairns lived on Queensbury St, two minutes from the site.
The community board approved the grant, which was upped to $2000 thanks to a Christchurch City Council staff recommendation.
They noted it would cost up to $70,000 a year to hire someone to do the work the Fairbairns did for free. City Care, which looks after the site for Land Information New Zealand, paid for the running costs of the mower but the couple faced other expenses so the grant was a ‘‘great incentive’’, Colleen Fairbairn said.
The land was initially fenced off and maintained by the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, but she noticed during an afternoon walk that the site ‘‘wasn’t looking very nice’’. It was filled with concrete, pipes and scraps left behind by demolition contractors, creating a massive eyesore for neighbouring properties.
Nowadays, maintaining the land was much more manageable, but still took as many hours as a full-time job, she said.
‘‘[Bryan Fairbairn] took his home mower and just mowed a strip, then another strip and it just got bigger and bigger. I think he’s mowing 33 acres (13 hectares) now, and doing the gardens and tidying up.’’
When the push mower broke down, he was gifted a ride-on mower, which also burnt out, then bought a new one, and a van and trailer to tow it.
‘‘He does it because he loves it, and he does it for the people who used to live there. Sometimes when they come back they thank him for everything, that’s always nice,’’ his wife said.
Bryan Fairbairn said once a woman had even ‘‘thrown her arms’’ around him as she was delighted to see the area so much tidier. ‘‘The people who used to live here, they’re the ones that really make it worth while,’’ he said
He hoped more events like Polyfest and family picnics would be held in the red zone so more people could enjoy the area.