{"id":2231,"date":"2025-07-29T03:32:48","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T03:32:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/?page_id=2231"},"modified":"2025-08-15T13:01:56","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T01:01:56","slug":"mcdonalds-fencing-construction","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/mcdonalds-fencing-construction\/","title":{"rendered":"MCDONALDS FENCING CONSTRUCTION"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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MCDONALD FENCING & CONSTRUCTION<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Conservation trust taps family firm for Gabrielle recovery push<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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When Whakat\u0101ne earthworks contractor, fencer and family business owner Bain McDonald got the call for help from deep within the remote forests of mountainous inland Hawke\u2019s Bay, he didn\u2019t hesitate for a beat.<\/p>

\u201cYep \u2013 we\u2019re up for that. How soon do you need us?\u201d<\/p>

The call had come from Pete Shaw, forest manager at the Forest Lifeforce Restoration Trust. Pete and his team at the Trust had spent decades, and hundreds of thousands of dollars, improving and building a network of roads and access tracks across thousands of hectares owned by the Trust in the Maungataniwha Native Forest and an adjoining former pine forest, which the Trust is converting back into native bush in the largest project of its kind in the country.<\/p>

These roads, tracks, bridges and access infrastructure are vital for the Trust\u2019s conservation work. It runs one of the most prolific kiwi conservation projects, as well as initiatives designed to restore or protect populations of the endangered whio (Blue Duck) and flora such as the incredibly rare k\u0101k\u0101beak (ngutuk\u0101k\u0101)\u00a0 and various types of mistletoe. \u00a0<\/p>

Yet all this investment in infrastructure was wiped out in just a few hours in February 2023 when Storm Gabrielle wreaked havoc across Hawke\u2019s Bay.<\/p>

The pressure of millions of cubic metres of rainwater sluicing through the narrow valleys scoured riverbeds and overturned rocks the size of shopping- trolleys. Together, the water, debris and land slips eliminated hundreds of kilometres of hard-won roads, tracks and trails.<\/p>

Entire lengths of road and huge two-metre double-culverts were blown out by slash.<\/p>

William McDonald is Bain\u2019s son. He manages the family business, McDonald Fencing and Construction, and like his dad he understood immediately the implications for the Trust.<\/p>

The impact was illustrated clearly when Pete Shaw and his wife Jules spent three hours in the dark and cold of the small hours, walking out to collect a single kiwi egg for incubation and hatching.<\/p>

Before the storm that nest was just a four-minute walk from the nearest vehicle access point.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u201cMultiply this additional time and effort across much of what the Trust\u2019s team and their network of volunteers do on a daily basis, like accessing pest trapping lines, and you\u2019ll get some idea of the impact on their work,\u201d William said.<\/p>

\u201cIt was essential to get our kit in quickly to fix their roads, trails and tracks.\u201d<\/p>

Bain and his wife Shorty loaded a 16-tonne excavator onto a transporter and set off for Maungataniwha. It\u2019s usually a five-hour drive from their base in Whakatane, but on a machine transporter it\u2019s a whole day event.<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s a long trip so Mum went down as well, just to make sure dad didn’t fall asleep at the wheel. In the end it got too late so they pulled over somewhere with a fantastic view, made a billy tea, watched the stars, went to sleep in the truck and carried on in the morning. No drama.\u201d<\/p>

It didn\u2019t take team McDonald very long to figure out an efficient and effective way to run the operation in such a remote location, and so far from base. With one operator on site at a time, they have evolved a week-long rotation that avoids excessive travel.<\/p>

\u201cit\u2019s tough on our operators if we tell them to go down there for a whole week, come out for two days and then go back down there for another week,\u201d William said. \u201cSo we\u2019ve set up a rotation where the operator goes down on a Monday, does a handover with the previous operator, then stays until the following Monday.\u201d<\/p>

The priority for the infrastructure recovery team is clearing the main roads and reinstating bridges and culverts.<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019re clearing a lot of slips and other blockages, replacing blown-out culverts and moving a lot of rocks,\u201d William said. \u201cOpening up tracks one by one.\u201d<\/p>

The second phase of the operation will involve spreading gravel on the repaired road surfaces, and grading and rolling it.<\/p>

William said the company\u2019s operators enjoy the work, despite the remoteness.<\/p>

\u201cThey stay in the Trust\u2019s accommodation at Maungataniwha, an old logging camp with a fully functional kitchen and comfortable, heated living area, and they\u2019re pretty much their own boss for the time they\u2019re down there.<\/p>

\u201cSome of the boys are hunters and Pete has told them that they\u2019re welcome to shoot a deer or two if it\u2019s not near the accommodation and they don\u2019t take any stags.<\/p>

\u201cSo after work they\u2019re off into the bush. They don\u2019t need to go that far, there are so many deer down there. We\u2019ve got some pretty well-fed fellas who come back to Whakatane after a week working at Maungataniwha.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>

While the isolation might not be too much of a worry for the hunter-gatherer excavator operators from the Bay, it\u2019s certainly an issue when it comes to equipment repair and down-time. A repair that can\u2019t be made on site means some serious downtime while a replacement, or an engineer, is driven to Maungataniwha from either Napier or Whakatane.<\/p>

\u201cA repair to a hydraulic hose might normally take half an hour to fix. But for this job it might mean down-time of up to a full day,\u201d William said.\u00a0 \u201cSo the guys are well aware that they need to be efficient but careful.\u201d<\/p>

The Maungataniwha infrastructure repair project is not a cheap exercise. They\u2019re only part-way into the project but the McDonald Fencing and Construction crew have already notched up nearly 500 machine-hours. There are dozens of blown-out culverts across the block and with one second-hand culvert costing in the region of $10,000, and concreting, machinery and labour costs on top of that, replacement costs for a single culvert can easily come in at $30,000.<\/p>

The Trust estimates that basic repair work, just to get the access infrastructure back to what it was before Gabrielle struck, will cost several hundred thousand dollars.<\/p>

None of this is insurable, so the considerable expense involved is being met personally by the Trust\u2019s chairman and land-owner Simon Hall. Much of the money is being spent locally, with local or provincial suppliers and contractors like McDonald Fencing and Construction.<\/p>

The construction side of the McDonald business focuses predominantly on bulk earthworks and forestry infrastructure. Most of their work comes through the main forest management organisation such as, Timberlands, PF Olsen and Manulife, formerly Hancocks.<\/p>

It\u2019s a typical Kiwi family business; Bain and Shorty still work in it but now they\u2019re supported by William and their son-in-law Eru, who runs the fencing side of things, and they employ about 10 other people, including other family members.<\/p>

The family whakapapas back to Tainui and the business is classified as a M\u0101ori business, registered with Amotai, the supplier diversity intermediary tasked with connecting M\u0101ori and Pasifika-owned businesses with buyers wanting to purchase goods and services.<\/p>

The family has no plans to grow the business beyond anything that it already is, a good, stable, solid business employing local people to meet the needs of local customers.<\/p>

\u201cSurvival is our number one goal,\u201d William says. \u201cIt\u2019s a tough market out there, with heaps of competition. We have always and will continue to differentiate by the approach we have to customer service and the attitude that we bring to our work.<\/p>

\u201cThat\u2019s where having a small crew, all of whom are connected through family, social circles or other ties, helps. There\u2019s a feeling that we\u2019re all in it together, all looking out for each other.\u201d<\/p>

If something seems a little bit difficult, or out of the ordinary, the McDonald crew will always be keen to \u201cgive it a nudge\u201d.<\/p>

It\u2019s that attitude that prompted Pete Shaw to pick up the phone to Bain McDonald once the extent of the damage from Storm Gabrielle became clear. The very same attitude that led to Bain\u2019s response:<\/p>

\u201cYep \u2013 we\u2019re up for that. How soon do you need us?\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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MCDONALD FENCING & CONSTRUCTION Conservation trust taps family firm for Gabrielle recovery push When Whakat\u0101ne earthworks contractor, fencer and family business owner Bain McDonald got the call for help from deep within the remote forests of mountainous inland Hawke\u2019s Bay, he didn\u2019t hesitate for a beat. \u201cYep \u2013 we\u2019re up for that. How soon do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"no-sidebar","site-content-layout":"page-builder","ast-site-content-layout":"full-width-container","site-content-style":"unboxed","site-sidebar-style":"unboxed","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"enabled","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2231","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2231"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3007,"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2231\/revisions\/3007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saje.nz\/forest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}