Bob Berry (dendrologist)

Robert James Berry (11 June 1916 – 2 August 2018) was a New Zealand dendrologist who founded Hackfalls Arboretum at his farm in Tiniroto, Gisborne.

His grandfather was originally from Knaresborough, Yorkshire, England, and had settled in the East Coast area of the North Island of New Zealand in 1889.

He became a frequent visitor of Eastwoodhill and Douglas Cook offered advice and support to Berry concerning the arboretum at Abbotsford Station.

After Douglas Cook's death, in 1971, Berry started the immense job of making a catalogue of all the trees of Eastwoodhill, with the help of Bill Crooks.

[4] Berry remained in charge of Abbotsford Station until 1984, when his niece, Diane, and her husband Kevin Playle took over the management of the farm.

In 1990, Berry welcomed another group of IDS members at Hackfalls Arboretum, led by Lady Anne Palmer.

In July 2006, Bob and Anne Berry left the homestead of Hackfalls Station and moved into the town of Gisborne.

In 1971, increasingly concerned at the lack of a proper catalogue, he began the huge task of locating and identifying every plant and plotting them on a grid laid over an aerial map.

With (Bill) Crooks as his right-hand man, Berry produced a catalogue of some 3000 plant species and varieties and with it the proof that Eastwoodhill was worth preserving".