Skip to main content

Story: Conservation – a history

Fern Arch

Image
Fern Arch

When Premier Richard Seddon introduced the Scenery Preservation Bill in 1903, he spoke nostalgically about his first impression of the Buller Gorge. Fern Arch is a natural tunnel in the lower part of the gorge. The road has since been widened, and the top of the arch removed by what engineers euphemistically call ‘daylighting’.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, F. G. Radcliffe Collection (PAColl-4950)

Reference: 1/2-006432; G

by Frederick Llewellyn Price

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

All images & media in this story

How to cite this page

Simon Nathan, Conservation – a history – Voices in the wilderness, 1769–1907, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/13907/fern-arch (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Simon Nathan, published 2 March 2009, updated 1 August 2015.