The public can now peek into the lives and work of Aotearoa’s past national parks and reserve rangers through a new online archive. 

Launched in early 2025 and still developing, the National Parks and Reserves Lands and Survey Rangers’ Archive is a freely accessible website that preserves the history of rangers who worked across the motu under the Department of Lands and Survey between the 1950s and the late 1980s before the Department of Conservation was formed. 

For example, you can read a first-person account from Kathy Ombler, wife of ranger John Ombler. The couple were based in Pipiriki in the late 1970s, just before Whanganui National Park was established; Ranger Bruce Jefferies recounts his 1980s ranger career in Tongariro National Park, which later took him to Nepal where he helped develop the Sagarmatha National Park; and John Gardner tells of monitoring a 1975 expedition to recover gold from the General Grant, shipwrecked in the Auckland Islands.

“These are not just administrative records,” project organiser and previous chief ranger Paul Green said. “They are human stories – of grit, ingenuity and deep connection with the land. Many rangers spent long seasons in rugged terrain, away from family, building tracks, maintaining huts and protecting native species. Their experiences are a vital part of our national narrative.”

There are more than 2000 original archives, including photographs, personal narratives, documents, management plans and oral histories that trace the evolution of ranger work. View the archive at parkrangersnz.recollectcms.com.