Perrine Moncrieff

Perrine Moncrieff

For nearly 50 years Perrine Moncrieff was this country's foremost female conservationist. Born into an upper-class British family, she immigrated to New Zealand in 1921, settled in Nelson and bought land on the shores of Tasman Bay, which became a scenic reserve in the 1930s. In 1942, to celebrate the three-hundredth anniversary of the discovery of New Zealand by Abel Tasman, the reserve was designated as Abel Tasman National Park. This was Moncrieff's greatest conservation achievement. She served on the park board until being required to stand down at age 81. A founding member of the New Zealand Native Bird Protection Society (1923) and the New Zealand Ornithological Society (1940), she campaigned successfully for reservation of land at Lake Rotoroa and Maruia Springs, and for designation of Farewell Spit as a bird sanctuary. She also donated a large area of coastal bush at Okiwi to the Crown as a reserve. Her popular guide to the identification of New Zealand birds, published in 1925, was a standard reference for some 40 years. She was an honorary wildlife ranger for 15 years, tramped extensively in the Nelson region and elsewhere in the South Island, and she wrote many articles at home and abroad. (See also her biography on the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography website.)

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Lee Boyd

Posted: 29 Oct 2016

My grandfather Charles Philip Boyd was Perinnes main guide in the wilderness and the back country and he spent a great deal of time with Perrine in the Whangapeka nad Able
Tasman and Golden Bay area's. According to my father who is also Charles Philip Boyd, they were great friends and spent a lot of time in each others company. Perinne and Charlie learnt a great deal from each other and spent a great deal of time in each others company

Deborah Petterson

Posted: 21 Mar 2011

I knew Perrine as a child as she was a great friend of my grandparents and they eventually bought a house next to her in Wakapuwaka in the last part of her life. When I would go up the Motueka Valley to her villa there she would tell me stories about birds and penguins and the like. She was amazing and I miss her to this day.