When Peter and Robyn McLeod first purchased their farm in Omakau, near Alexandra in 2018, the five-hectare site that is now Orkney wetland was more of a pond where drainage from the surrounding farmland had pooled.

“It was a bit neglected and run down where all sludge channels entered Thomson’s Creek,” says Robyn. “It was a horrible, manky swamp.”

After trying a couple of different avenues, including applying for consent to try to clean it up, the couple were eventually approached by Nicola McGrouther about getting the local Catchment Group involved and building a wetland from scratch.

Before increased human farming activity in the area, the landscape would have likely been threaded with riverine wetlands along the Manuherekia River and its tributaries.

Present day Thomson’s creek runs from nearby hills into the Manuherekia River and is home to the rare Central Otago roundhead galaxiid, (Galaxias anomalus Threatened – Nationally Endangered) an ancient freshwater fish which is one of the twelve endangered non-migratory galaxiids in New Zealand.

Remarkably, the site had retained some of its native plant species like scabweed (Raoulia australis – At Risk Declining), Coprosma intertexta (At Risk Declining) and matagouri (Discaria toumatou). But work would need to be done to return the ecosystem to a healthy state.

When it comes to restoring a wetland, there are a lot of different approaches depending on the landscape context and resources available. Some might take the route of more passive restoration, which might involve removing stock, pest control, planting and letting the water build up again by making changes to drainage.

“This was an unusual situation, where there was a well-funded group ready to do some quite significant work to get the wetland built in a short space of time,” says Kerri Lukis, QEII’s Southern team leader. “Constructing a wetland from scratch is something not every group around the country can do, but it’s been great to see the community get on board with this and pitch in.”

Thomson’s Creek Catchment Group was set up in 2019 with the aim of improving freshwater health within the roughly 16,000 ha Thomson’s Creek catchment area. One of their key projects was to create a functioning wetland to improve the quality of the water exiting the sluice channel into Thomson’s Creek, which would also benefit the Manuherekia River the creek flows into.

Government funding via Ministry for Environment’s (MfE) Freshwater Improvement Fund gave the Thomson’s Creek project a boost, generating about eight full time equivalent jobs across three years. Behind it all, the Manuherekia Catchment Group provides governance and long-term sustainability—ensuring the project’s benefits are felt across the entire region.

So, how do you build a wetland?

Careful thought was put into designing a functioning wetland that would intercept water before it entered Thomson’s creek and provide an important habitat for local wildlife.

First on the to-do list for constructing the wetland was to clean out the existing wetland outlet that had been plugged up with willow trees and silt. Over the course of four months the wetland began to take shape with earth bunds, sediment traps and a concrete weir going in.

A lot of planning also went into planting, ensuring that the species of plant suited its place in the wetland and could cope with some of the coldest and hottest temperatures in New Zealand. Shallow areas of the wetland were planted in aquatic sedges such as purei (Carex secta) with wiwi/rushes naturally returning, while other raised areas of the wetland were planted with harakeke/flax (Phormium tenax), Olearia lineata, O.odorata, ribbonwood (Plagianthus regius), kōwhai (Sophora microphylla), Coprosma propinqua , tī kōuka/cabbage tree (Cordyline australis), and other local riparian species.

It takes a community

The wetland project was adopted by the community, with various groups getting involved. The Matakanui Combined Rugby Club stepped in five times over two weeks to help shift plants in the evenings, allowing the catchment group to keep pace with the planting crews who successfully planted 41,000 Carex secta in just nine days. Omakau School has been doing the water monitoring for the last three years, local schools are visiting the wetland, and local residents have dropped in to help whenever the project group needed a hand, including starting a backyard growers group to grow plants for the wetland.

Enthusiastic volunteers have established bird monitoring and trapping teams, achieving great success in removing predators such as ferrets, rats and hedgehogs from the area. This is providing protection for the birds that are moving into the wetland including pūkeko, stilts, white-faced herons, swans, ducks and even the black billed gull (At Risk Declining).

Nic McGrouther speaks highly of the support landowners Pete and Robyn have given to the project. “Throughout this process, Pete and Robyn have supported us from the time when we first came to them and said we’d like to create a wetland to help improve water quality in the catchment, through the mess of construction, to the final thriving wetland we have today. Their patience and belief in us have been incredible, and we extend our heartfelt thanks for their amazing support. We hope we have done them proud.”

Robyn says they themselves have enjoyed the whole process and seeing the wetland take shape. “The changes to the wetland have developed slowly,” says Robyn. “It is bigger than we first imagined but it is way better than we thought it would ever be.”

Protection through partnership with QEII

While large strides were taken to turn a sludgy pool into a healthier ecosystem, establishing a wetland takes much longer than a handful of human years. Time really does tell when it comes to restoration projects. It was important to Pete and Robyn to see the site protected as it continues to regenerate.

In 2024, Pete and Robyn worked with QEII to protect the wetland at Thomson’s Creek under a Restoration Agreement, naming the site Orkney wetland after the name of the property, which was given by the previous owners the Corrigalls who had come from Orkney in Scotland.

Restoration Agreements have been trialled since 2022 through funding from Jobs for Nature. A Restoration Agreement is an intermediate step to secure protection of potential biodiversity values while an area develops to the point where it would warrant full Open Space Covenant status.

“As the wetland developed, we realized what an asset it was going to be to our community, schools etc,” says Robyn. “But also, we had gained something in the appearance of our property. So, we started discussions on how to go about putting it into the QEII Trust knowing we would not be here forever to protect it.”