A legacy in Hamilton Gardens, conservation and a choir: Albarta Margaretha (Betty) Collins: (1952-2026)

Saturday, 16 May 2026

Betty Collins was not one to sleep in. Though exceptionally well read in her field, she was not a recreational consumer of books or magazines, either. Hard, focused toil on environmental projects, be it in her working life or in innumerable volunteer endeavours around Hamilton and the wider Waikato, went beyond mere vocation. Her dedication was infectious, her leadership wise and inspiring, her physical legacy vast and long lasting.

A servant of the city and of the region, she found time somehow to also offer her services closer to home. When daughter Vicky and son-in-law Troy acquired property with a large, unkept gully, a challenge was laid down, one met with excitement. As the younger generation holidayed, Betty scaled steep slopes, hanging upon a rope, with a knapsack and weedkiller. Later, all three were to spend weekends clearing and planting, exhausting but rewarding work. At one point Betty said, 'way back when I was in Horticultural College, I never imagined that one day I would be planting alongside my daughter'.

Today, in the gully, as in the Hamilton Gardens, the Hamilton Zoo and the Waiwhakareke Natural Heritage Park, to name but three of the higher profile sites shaped by Betty's vision and touched by Betty's hands, the plants are mature, providing a sanctuary for human and fauna alike. Particularly evident are tūī, their presence still another of Betty's tangible legacies.

Albarta Margaretha Matthys was born 1 September, 1952, in the village of Monster, Netherlands, the fourth of the five children of Jan Karel (Karl) Cornelis Matthys and Goela Petronella Matthys (nee Koolwijk). Her early life was spent in Monster, on the coast, where her grandparents also had property. Many formative beach experiences were enjoyed.

Later in the 1950s the family shifted further inland, to Wateringen, another small town, 5km southwest of The Hague. Here her father, Karl, managed a radio and television shop, both fixing and selling appliances. Betty and her siblings biked some distance to school, in accordance with their parents' wishes that they receive a wholly secular education. Initially Betty doubled her sister, Margriet, who was seven-and-a-half years her junior and for whom she took responsibilities of care seriously.

Betty retained a lifelong sense of appreciation that her parents had the foresight to encourage her post-secondary study. Growing up with an interest in plants, she attended the Tuinbouwschool Huis te Lande in Rijswijk and obtained a diploma in horticulture. Her knowledge of plants was immense, extending to an almost encyclopedic capacity to remember both common and Latin names. As with many Europeans of her generation she was also fluent in several languages; beyond her native Dutch she could speak French, German and English.

Betty secured her initial employment in 1972 as a landscape architect for the Netherlands' prestigious Floriade, an international exhibition and garden festival, based in Amsterdam. Later that same year, having long had a yen for travel, she joined her elder brother Karl in Cambridge, New Zealand, taking up a position at the Ruakura Research Station. Working under the widely respected Pat Bates, she was based at the Rukuhia Soil Research Station, in its blueberry propagation section, establishing the most robust varieties of the plant.

Joining a local tramping club, Betty was waiting for a bus to pick up her group for an ascent of Mt Egmont when she first met builder Brian Collins. She was, says Brian, holding a motorbike helmet in one hand and an apple in the other. An initial date - in which she met the challenge of correctly identifying the exotic plant he purchased by way of a gift, then he himself passed muster by proving he could hammer 100 nails into a piece of wood in a particular pattern, inside an allotted time frame - bore some resemblance to a job interview. Brian got the job: it was to last 53 years.

Betty and Brian were married 14 February, 1975, with Betty's mother Goela in attendance. Within three years both Betty's parents and sister Margriet had all relocated to the Waikato.

Betty and Brian built a house in Te Miro, near Cambridge. They were to have two children, Vicky and Stephen. Betty was a supportive mother, especially encouraging her offsprings' sporting interests and instilling an affection for animals. With Vicky she bonded over a shared love of horses. Having realised her own youthful dream of owning a pony, she facilitated every aspect of Vicky's equine pursuits, from riding lessons to club memberships to entry fees, obtaining a heavy duty driving license and purchasing a horse float and later a truck in order to drive to remote competition locations. She did likewise with Stephen and his cycling events.

In the early 1980s Betty and Brian ran a garden nursery in Cambridge, particularly enjoying the growing and selling of orchids for export. A further change came with the purchase of a lifestyle block at Koromatua, affording Betty landscaping opportunities and the chance to establish a large garden of shrubs and native trees. She had a special enthusiasm for camellia trees.

Betty's initiatives on her own property would be mirrored in wider activity. She became a committed member of a group at Tamahere that worked on restorative projects and would eco-source seed from native plants, potting them, then later replanting in the same area. She organised volunteers and took an active part in conservation planting, including the stand of kahikatea trees in the Barrett Bush Reserve, in Koromatua. She was also instrumental in assisting with weedbusters for farms and larger areas, with broad organisational skills that drew on not only her huge knowledge of plants but a practical capacity to liaise between DOC and farmers, sustaining at times difficult relationships.

Betty was an early member of the Tui 2000 volunteer group that formed in 1989 with a goal of advocating for and taking practical steps toward increasing biodiversity in the Hamilton region, coordinating community education, planting projects and ecological restoration, often in collaboration with local councils. Not least of its goals was to facilitate the return of its titular birds to the Waikato.

Much of this volunteer activity overlapped with Betty's 28 years working for the Hamilton City Council. Her contribution to the formation of the Hamilton Gardens cannot, perhaps, be overstated. As a draftswoman she had responsibilities, under the leadership of Peter Sergel, for the design of Turtle Lake and a hand in several of the early gardens, especially the Chinese Garden. Thereafter employed by the Hamilton Zoo for two decades, she was involved in the landscaping of the chimpanzee exhibit, the free flight aviary and the wetlands and managed the volunteer hosts. As administration coordinator she oversaw both the zoo's front of house and its formal health & safety. She additionally contributed to the zoo's education programme, writing two books to that end.

Betty's commitment to both the Hamilton Gardens and the Hamilton Zoo was sustained long after her retirement. As Lucy Ryan, current gardens director says, 'she came back to the Gardens again and again and again: as a volunteer…[and] as a tour guide', a 'friend' of the institution with unparalleled knowledge of its history and capacity to talk with expert insight into its flora, 'a plant person' who 'knew plants inside out'. The soul of dependability, Betty was known for taking on the jobs that no one else wanted, such as managing parking during the annual Arts Festival, and doing so with competence and no complaint.

Volunteering at the Hamilton Zoo, Betty also played a central role in the establishment of the 60ha Waiwhakareke Natural Heritage Park across the road, coordinating planting and other working bees on site. A self-sustaining sanctuary, reflecting the original ecosystem of the Hamilton Basin, inclusive of a peat lake and wetland ecosystem, it is another testimony to her vision and commitment. Says one friend and volunteer colleague, Betty brought her professional expertise to such undertakings, vital in situations where most volunteers are lacking in formal training. She was 'absolutely reliable'.

For 'service to community and education' Betty was the recipient of a Hamilton City Council Civic Award in 2022. Martin Gallagher, a former Hamilton deputy mayor and one-time Member of Parliament for Hamilton West says that whilst this recognition was 'richly deserved' the citation itself 'did not adequately describe her contribution to our city and community'. For Gallagher, Betty's story is 'an exemplar of a migrant story', of a woman who came from overseas yet left 'an incredible legacy'.

Outside of conservation Betty's other great love was music, an interest she shared with Margriet. With two other friends the sisters co-founded an unauditioned community singing group in Cambridge that would eventually become the Mosaic Choir, a collective that thrives to this day. Betty would later join the World Voices Choir, giving expression to her desire to sing in languages other than English.

Together with Margriet, Betty nursed both her parents through their decline and eventual passing, becoming in the process mindful of a genetic predisposition to dementia. If she was saved from such a possibility a diagnosis of melanoma brought its own tragedy.

A woman of huge industry and dedication to ecology, Betty loved travel, nature walks, gardens and ice cream. She touched the lives of many and contributed to community projects that will survive for hundreds of years.

Albarta Margaretha Collins died 23 March, 2026. She is survived by Brian, her husband of 51 years, children Vicky and Stephen, children-in-law Troy and Kylie, grandsons Fabian, Heath and Jesse, brothers Karl, Fred, Ad and sister Margriet.