Ways to help
Planting days
Weekend working bees in the planting seasons — April and May, then August and September — usually at 10 am. The spots are strimmed, sprayed and often pre-drilled before you arrive, and new planters are shown a trial patch first so that everyone plants the same way. We bring the plants, the tools and the trailer.
Dates go out on Facebook. Come as you are, and ask us what to bring.
Mid-week planting
A team of eight plants during the week, thirty to seventy plants at a time. Between July and September 2026 that steady rhythm did more of the work than the big days did, and it is the easiest way in if a Sunday morning does not suit.
Get in touch and say which days you can do.
Weed work
African boxthorn, broom, gorse, docks, hemlock, ivy and flowering currant, plus exotic grass everywhere. Clearing the boxthorn, broom and gorse out of the planting area is an output of the project in its own right, and the grass has to be kept back from every young plant for two years.
The least glamorous thing on the list, and the one that decides whether the planting survives.
Growing plants on
Almost every plant comes from Forest & Bird’s nursery in the Oamaru Public Gardens, and the limit there is growing space rather than money. We have begun buying plants in to grow on for the following season, and asked local gardening clubs about raising plants at home.
If you have room and a watering habit, this is a real constraint you could lift.
Predator control
One of the trust’s purposes — support and expand predator control — and the part of the plan with least behind it so far. There is trapping around Ōamaru, and the tūī and korimako coming back into the town are the result of it; on the Cape itself we do not yet know who traps where.
If you trap on the Cape, we would like to hear from you. This is the piece most in need of a person.
Recording what you see
There is exactly one dated wildlife record for this headland: a pair of grey warblers nesting beside the path in August 2026. That is not because there is nothing else to see. The monitoring programme also calls for drone photographs every six months and survival counts every three, and both need doing.
Sightings and photographs are both welcome. There is no formal recording scheme yet, so email is the way in.
If you would rather give than dig
The trust has donee status, confirmed in December 2025, so donations to it are eligible for a tax credit.
There is no donation button here yet. Email is the way in, and we will send you the account details.
Get in touch
Email is the best way to reach us — to join a working bee, to offer growing space, to share a photograph or a memory of the cape, or to correct something on this site. The corrections are genuinely welcome: several pages here say plainly what they are missing.
ancientcapewanbrow@gmail.comDay to day we post on Facebook as Makotukutuku Ancient Cape Wanbrow, which is where planting dates go out.