When
Elwyn
married
Shirley
Burridge
in
1948,
he
returned
to
farm
‘Kelvin
Grove’,
and
his
parents
moved
to
an
adjoining
property
they
had
purchased.
Elwyn
was
always
interested
in
nature,
and
had
a
passion
for
birds
in
particular.
As
a
small
child
he
had
his
own
aviary,
and
raised
and
cared
for
a
variety
of
different
kinds.
While
at
Wairarapa
College
he
befriended
John
Cunningham,
himself
a
keen
ornithologist,
and
through
Cunningham,
made
contact
with
Doctor
Falla,
then
the
director
of
the
National
Museum.
He
was
also
a
keen
tramper,
and
spent
many
hours
in
the
Tararua
Ranges
near
his
property,
noting
the
bird
life.
Shortly
after
his
marriage
he
guided
a
party
of
scientists
through
the
near-by
Mount
Bruce
Forest
Reserve,
and
prepared
a
report
on
the
avifauna
of
the
reserve.
He
suggested
that,
although
the
reserve
already
had
‘more
than
its
share
of
New
Zealand
native
birds,’
given
proper
protection
and
care,
it
would
be
able
to
house
many
more.
By
this
the
mid
1950s
his
conservation
interests
were
focussed
more
directly
on
saving
endangered
species.
He
commenced
by
hand-raising
grey
teal
chicks,
and
through
this
work
gained
a
reputation
as
one
of
the
country’s
foremost
amateur
ornithologists.
It
was
only
natural
then
that
Elwyn
Welch
would
be
pressed
into
service
in
the
campaign
to
rescue
the
takahe.
The
takahe
had
long
been
regarded
as
extinct
until
a
party
led
by
Dr
Geoffrey
Orbell
rediscovered
the
secretive
bird
in
the
Murchison
Mountains
in
1947.
At
first
scientists
thought
the
population
was
self-sustaining,
but
quickly
became
concerned
that
the
population
of
the
rare
birds
was
falling
fast,
and
decided
to
instigate
a
captive
breeding
programme.
Elwyn
Welch
was
consulted.
He
recommended
using
bantams
to
rear
the
takahe
chicks
and
set
about
training
a
clutch
of
birds
to
undertake
the
task.
He
made
a
nesting
box
with
dummy
eggs
in
it,
and
them
transported
it
around
his
farm
–
on
his
back
or
on
a
tractor–
to
get
the
bantams
used
to
sitting
while
they
were
being
moved
about.
He
then
introduced
the
bantams
to
some
pukeko
chicks,
the
pukekos
being
closely
related
to
the
takahe.
A
clandestine
trip
was
made
to
the
South
Island,
with
the
secret
bantams,
and
a
number
of
takahe
chicks
were
retrieved
from
the
mountains.
Welch
and
his
co-conspirators
travelled
under
assumed
names,
and
news
of
the
successful
capture
and
raising
of
the
takahe
was
kept
entirely
from
the
public.
In
1960
the
Wildlife
Service
decided
to
publicise
their
work,
and
to
allow
visitors
to
see
what
Welch
had
undertaken
at
his
farm.
Over
13,000
people
flocked
to
see
the
unique
birds.
Following
his
success
with
the
takahe,
the
Wildlife
Service
commenced
a
similar
programme
with
the
threatened
parrot,
the
kakapo.
A
small
number
were
trapped
in
Fiordland,
and
bought
north
for
Welch
to
care
for
them,
but
they
did
not
thrive.
Little
was
understood
about
their
feeding
habits
at
the
time,
and
they
did
not
breed..
At
the
height
of
his
fame
as
an
ornithologist
Elwyn
Welch
felt
another
call.
Since
his
teenage
years
he
had
been
a
member
of
the
Open
Brethren
congregation,
and
had
studied
with
the
New
Zealand
Bible
Training
Institute
by
correspondence.
He
had
preached
at
a
number
of
churches
in
Wairarapa,
and
now
felt
called
to
become
a
missionary.
The
Wildlife
Service,
which
had
been
searching
for
a
base
to
start
a
rare
bird-breeding
programme,
bought
‘Kelvin
Grove’,
and
in
April
1961
Elwyn,
Shirley
and
their
three
children
left
New
Zealand
for
Nigeria.
They
ran
a
missionary
house
in
the
interior
of
the
country,
and
Elwyn
preached.
Their
time
in
Nigeria
was,
however,
to
end
in
tragedy.
Elwyn
contracted
poliomyelitis
in
its
most
severe
form,
bulbar,
which
attacks
the
cranial
nerves.
He
died
on
10
December
1961,
only
seven
months
after
leaving
Mount
Bruce,
and
aged
just
36.
The
Wildlife
Service
continued
to
run
their
bird-breeding
programme
from
‘Kelvin
Grove’
for
a
couple
of
years,
before
shifting
about
a
kilometre
down
the
road
to
the
reserve.
The
National
Wildlife
Centre
at
Pukaha
Mount
Bruce
is
a
direct
descendant
of
the
pioneering
conservation
work
of
one
of
Wairarapa’s
unsung
heroes
–
Elwyn
Welch.
