Westpac Water Care Grant Winners Announced
Excerpt from Thriving Southland’s September newsletter:
‘This year we had four applications submitted to this fund this year from Lower Oreti, Greater Dipton, Otama and Hedgehope Makarewa Catchment Groups covering everything from creating an animal pest trap library, restoring Kowhai Reach, sediment reduction mitigations, and possum control.
The Westpac Water Care Project is an annual opportunity where seven community-led catchment projects from around Aotearoa receive $10,000 to support practical restoration projects in their local waterways. The Westpac Watercare Team said that there was an exceptional level of quality applications this year, with amazing work being done across New Zealand. The lucky winner of the Southland funding was …drumroll… Greater Dipton with Kowhai Reach restoration!
Kowhai Reach is a special area of rare, meandering riparian forest and an ancient kōwhai trees (some over 400 years old) on the Winton Stream at Kauna in Central Southland. It is a community-led restoration project with strong support from local landowners, QEII covenantors, QEII National Trust, Limehills School, Southland District Council and the local Catchment Groups and many more.
Congratulations to all four entrants. It was an amazing range of projects from our region, and the Thriving Southland Catchment Coordinators will now work with the other three Groups to find funding to make their projects happen. Many thanks to Westpac and the NZ Landcare Trust for this great funding opportunity.’
Posted on: Tuesday, 8 September 2026
