Community

Eastland Group walks the talk.

This is a company that truly does practice what it preaches and is always looking for ways to benefit the wider community and to reduce the impact it has on the environment.

The group is a keen supporter of many happenings in the community. While the single main sponsorship is speedway, there are plenty of other smaller projects, organisations and events the group is involved with, including:

Gisborne Speedway

Gisborne Speedway's Eastland Group Raceway is enjoyed by thousands every season who are treated to spectacular racing from the best in the country. It is Gisborne’s favourite summer spectator sport, with crowds of up to several thousand regularly turning out on an evening to watch the exciting action. Speedway is consistently the biggest spectator sport in the Gisborne region. Check out their website here.

Harbour the Beat

The Harbour the Beat Jazz Blues and Roots Festival is a growing event that attracts hundreds to the Inner Harbour area for two days of fabulous music.

Harbour the Madness

Harbour the Madness Day in late December sees a blend of some serious competitive swimming with aspiring bird men and women who do their darnedest to impress a very appreciative crowd. It's an event that is gaining in popularity each year.

Moko

In the summer of 2009-2010 Eastland Group joined forces with the Eastland Community Trust and Waikanae Surf Lifesaving Club, with guidance from the Department of Conservation, to ensure Moko the friendly dolphin had minders during the region's busy summer months. The group and trust financed two-person crews from the surf club to shadow Moko in an IRB. News of Moko Minders spread quickly around the country, with crews regularly starring in photographs, on national radio and television clips.

Eastland Rescue Helicopter

Eastland Group stepped up to help the Eastland Rescue Helicopter raise more than $150,000 for night vision goggles in the 2009 Great Gisborne Race. Teams had to kayak, cycle and run their way around the city's three bridges. Team Eastland Group – comprising Matawai School’s Dylan Wallbank, former All Whites captain Rodger Gray, New Zealand touch rugby representative Dianne Akurangi, Olympic gold medal-winning kayaker Paul MacDonald, television star Erin Simpson, Eastland Group’s own Ben Gibson and Gisborne Boys’ High School student Alexander Hyland – were one of four teams taking part.

Kaiti Hill Native Regeneration

Conservation is always on the minds of those at Eastland Port. A beautiful winter's morn saw more than 60 people – Eastland Group employees, family and the wider community – turn up to plant more than 600 trees in the shady oaks area of Kaiti Hill. It was the biggest planting effort for 2010 on Titirangi. The Port also came to the party in 2009, donating mulch to the Women's Native Tree Project for their ongoing work on Kaiti Hill. The project saw around 120 trees planted, part of an ongoing development and refurbishment of the hill in whose shadow the port rests.

Gisborne Palliative Care

Throughout 2010, Eastland Group also helped, through various ways, the Gisborne Palliative Care Service, the hosting of the Thunder at Sea Powerboat Race, Plunket and others. The group continues to be involved throughout the district in all facets of the community.

Scholarships

Eastland Group Tertiary Study Scholarship offers $5,000 to Eastland region students studying engineering, with a particular focus on civil, mechanical or electrical engineering. The scholarship comes with the opportunity of paid holiday work with the group.

Applications are now closed for the 2012 study year. 
They will re-open in September 2012 for the 2013 study year.
Please refer to the Application Form which lists the requirements of the Eastland Group Scholarship and contact details. 

 Please click here to view sponsorship information