Queenstown Lakes District Council has rejected an application by a family whose descendants arrived in the Wakatipu 150 years ago to erect a memorial in the Queenstown Botanic Gardens.
Family descendant Richard Bryant was at the council's community services committee meeting yesterday to hear the decision and left quickly afterwards. When approached by the Otago Daily Times, he did not want to comment.
Councillors were sympathetic to Mr Bryant's proposal, with committee chairwoman Cath Gilmour saying "emotionally, I would like to say yes", but upheld QLDC parks manager Gordon Bailey's recommendation that no new monuments be erected in the gardens.
"The continual placement of memorials has the potential to transform the character of the gardens from a public garden to a cemetery and it is considered that the capacity for the gardens to accommodate further memorials has been reached and no further memorials should be permitted," Mr Bailey said in the report.
The council questioned the suitability of the gardens for the memorial, since it was in Kinloch that Mr Bryant settled in the 19th century. He and wife Mary were the first permanent residents.
Cr Gilmour pointed to the quote "only sites that have relevance to the person, group or event being commemorated should be nominated" in council's plaques, memorials and monuments policy.
"Perhaps Glenorchy or Kinloch is more relevant to your family history."
Mr Bryant told the committee his family did not move to Kinloch until 1868, and so "the Kinloch history came later".
He told the committee his family wanted the memorial to be a permanent public amenity in the form of a seat, at no cost to the council.
A memorial had been erected in Kinloch on the 125th anniversary of Mr Bryant's arrival.
The Bryant family will celebrate 150 years of living in the Wakatipu with a family reunion at Labour Weekend.
