Once ridiculed for building a lake that now helps fight fires
As a bit of a plane enthusiast himself, William White fondly remembers waving up at the first helicopter pilot that hovered over his property.
Like a dung beetle to a pat, the pilot of the monsoon bucket-bearing helicopter looked longingly at White’s enormous man-made pond.
“I knew what he wanted, and I gave him the thumbs up,” White recalls.
It may have taken over a decade, but the Loburn local finally feels vindicated that the passion project he was once ridiculed for has now helped save his North Canterbury community from a wildfire.
Not once, but twice.
White’s family watched in disbelief as he constructed a 7500m² pond on his property near the north bank of the Ashley River in 2002.
People thought he was mad. When the pond started leaking, it seemed they were right. But White, “not a man to be put off”, enrolled in a scuba diving course to learn how to examine the pond bed and plug the leaks, his sister, Annabelle Roulston, said.
After two years of construction, White’s creation, known as Lake Gyro to some of his family, was formed.
When the Ashley River ran dry while a wildfire raged in Loburn last month – taking two homes and a privately-owned church victim – Lake Gyro was nearby for helicopters to swoop in and refill their monsoon buckets.
“It really helped save the day,” said Roulston, who believed properties had been saved that night as a result.
It was not the first time the pond came in handy.
In February 2020, helicopters helped battled a blaze by the Ashley River that covered nearly 100 hectares of shrub, fanned by a howling and hot nor’west wind.
That was the first time White excitedly gave the thumbs up, all while calling out “why’s it taken you 17 years to vindicate me” as the helicopter pilots lowered their buckets, he laughed.
It had always been a pond to White, but the fire service called it a lake as two helicopters could retrieve water from it at the same time, he said.
It was a “big project, not something anyone would have tackled”, but one that “wasn’t too out of character” for her multi-talented and tinkerer brother, Roulston said.
He’s a wood turner, saw-miller, orchardist and inventor who also “stepped up” to help their widowed mother provide for the family when their father died while they were teenagers, she said.
“He doesn’t just think about himself, and that’s evident from his lake that has benefited a lot of other people.”
The pond has had many uses, ranging from being the landing pad for White’s son as he did back flips on his bike as a child, to now helping fight threatening fires.
“It’s good to be able to contribute back to the community,” he said.
“I always thought it’d be a great firefighting resource – trucks could come and get water – but I never thought of helicopters filling monsoon buckets out of it.
“I really enjoy aeroplanes and helicopters and things like that, so I’m in my element.”
Fire and Emergency New Zealand national wildfire manager Tim Mitchell said crews used a variety of options such as ponds, swimming pools and rivers to reduce time needed to get water to where it was most needed.
“We are always grateful to the community and people such as William White who are happy for us to use their water,” Mitchell said.
The “endured scepticism” her brother faced had finally been silenced, Roulston said. “No-one was laughing when the fires broke out and his lake helped save the day.”