Winner of the 2026 Ōrākei Enviro Award

Roy Clements was announced as Ōrākei Local Board’s 2026 Environment Award winner at the

Board’s Enviro Forum on Sunday, April 19, at the Akarana Marine Sports Centre, Okahu Bay.

At the age of 92, he has spent 25 years on the back-breaking and, to some, dispiriting task of

weeding bush reserves in the OLB area — most recently in Selwyn Bush and Selwyn Park.

Presenting Roy with a pounamu, blessed by Ngai Tahu, in front of an appreciative audience of his

fellow environmental volunteers, Margaret Voyce, OLB’s environment lead, paid tribute to his

“vision and tenacity”, which had been instrumental in the development of the eastern end of

Pourewa Valley as we know it today.

Expanding on these comments later, Margaret said she remembered how Roy had entered

Pourewa Valley at its roughest point, behind the stadium adjacent to Selwyn College, to embark on

the practical task of making a pathway into the valley.

“It was a goat track,” Margaret recalls. “It was almost impassable, blocked with weeds like climbing

asparagus, woolly nightshade, moth plant and Japanese honeysuckle”.

Roy eventually broke through and kept improving and enhancing the track — fronting up

tenaciously to the inevitable return of the weeds with the ambition of eventually suppressing them

to a manageable state. To Margaret’s list, he added Madeira vine, montbretia, gorse and monkey

apple to his target of about 20 core weeds “because you can’t tackle more than that”.

In addition to Roy’s spearheading of the anti-weed effort, he has also stewarded the

establishment of an outdoor education centre on the perimeter of Selwyn College, to foster the

next generation of environmentalists. This is an echo of his first major environmental project —

way back in 1979 — when he led a group of Polynesian boys, many of them affected by the

infamous dawn raids — to plant trees on a former farm paddock adjacent to Mt Albert Grammar

School.

In his acceptance speech, Roy said it was good to know that Auckland City was now on the side

of environmentalists. “We used to be the enemy, and sometimes the council tried to block whatever we did.” He recalled “a former mayor” who wanted to drive an eight-lane motorway through Pourewa Valley.

Today the vision of Roy and his fellow environmentalists is a reality. Pourewa Valley is a taonga of

beauty and tranquility in the heart of our city, fostering native trees and plants, with a walkway,

cycle way and an unobtrusive electric train running through it. Those motorway plans have

receded into the dark corners of history.

Roy’s updated vision — looking 30 or 40 years into the future — is that Pourewa will be “an inner

city park, our equivalent of Hyde Park in London, the Bois de Boulogne in Paris and Central Park

in New York”.

Public recognition of his many quiet and valuable achievements does not signal Roy’s retirement.

Not at all. He had a fall a few weeks back, and an operation, so he is “taking a break until May”.

That’s May next week, not May next year.

Well done, Roy! You are a legend!

— Story and photos Jan Power (EBSP)

Photos: Birds-eye view looking over Selwyn Bush and Park, Kohimarama. Roy is receiving his award and pounamu.