David Sole

David Sole worked two separate stints working for Wellington City Council, the first stint commenced in 1979 and ended 7 years later in 1986. David began working at Council as a labourer at the City Garden Herd Street depot, moving up to the position as Foreman Street Trees Planning and Maintenance. During this time, David completed his RNZIH National Diploma in Horticulture (Hons).

David then departed WCC and established his own business “Sole Gardening and Landscape Ltd”, which David managed from October 1986 to October 2003 (17 years). David’s business provided garden maintenance, arboriculture and landscape services for private, commercial and local authority customers, including most of the ‘green’ planted new buildings in the CBD. David served on the executive (including as Vice President for two years) of the Landscape Guild/Landscape Industries of NZ and represented the industry in the transition from traditional vocational training to ITO unit standards-based training.

In 2003, David was appointed to the position of Botanic Gardens Manager, which in David’s own words, was the one opportunity he was prepared to give his business up for. In 2007, David was seconded to the Open Space and Parks Manager position for a 12-month period. During this period David, together with other colleagues, finalised the Matairangi/Mt Victoria upgrade. 

Over the past 21 years, 2003 to 2024, David was involved in establishing, developing and delivering various Wellington Garden plans. These included delivering the 2002 Landscape Development Plan, and the creation and delivery of the 2010 Otari Landscape Development Plan. Working alongside the planning team with the revision of the Botanic Gardens Management Plan 2014, which led to further involvement in education and science and a global perspective around Botanic Gardens.

In 2015, the education, science, and conservation roles were introduced, with the opening of the Te Kaapiua o te Waouku/Discovery Garden in 2017. In 2018 the establishment of the Otari Lions Conservation laboratory was finalised.

In 2019/2020, David was seconded to the Te Motu Karangi park development project and worked alongside Council teams and Land Information New Zealand to set up a 5-year development programme towards creating a new reserve on former defence land.

David was made a Fellow of the RNZIH in recognition of his support for the industry in Amenity and Landscape. Further to this he became the Wellington Chair, then Vice President and President respectively of the RNZIH for four years and was made an Associate of Honour of the RNZIH.

David was the NZ convenor of Botanic Gardens of Australia and NZ and Australasian executive board member for four years and continued as secretary treasurer for the NZ group.

He was also the convenor of the BGANZ Congress in 2019 held in Wellington alongside the Botanic Garden 150 anniversary and convenor of the Down the Garden Path conference in 2015, taking a multisector snapshot at the state of the industry and ‘where to from here’.

David maintained close relationships with the Friends of Wellington Botanic Garden, Otari Wilton’s Bush Trust, and the Friends of Bolton Street Cemetery and was involved in the Wellington Gardens accredited Carbon Zero – with no offsets – for four years and set up the framework for the Gardens’ climate change assessments and response.

David completed a Diploma in Environment and Sustainability and in September 2024, was presented with a Legacy Award by Landscape New Zealand in acknowledgement of his work with what was then NZLG/LIANZ over the 17 years when he owned his business.