'I Never Stop Learning': Half A Century With The Same Employer

Wednesday, 10 September 2025, 3:11 pm
Article: Max Frethey - Local Democracy Reporter

Looking around Nelson, there are not many major council projects that Ian Tyler hasn’t been a part of during his half century working for the organisation. 

Tyler recently achieved his 50th anniversary working at Nelson City Council, just a few weeks shy of his 69th birthday, and the geospatial analyst is now looking to retire by the end of the year. 

First employed in architectural drafting, designing up new amenities like toilet blocks or community housing, he moved into geographic information systems (GIS) work in the 1990s – a shift he never regretted. 

GIS involved using mapping and data tools to layer different pieces of information so it could be visualised in a geographic context. 

For example, it could help identify suitable sites for a landfill based on certain criteria or, outside of a local government context, identify hotspots in a disease outbreak. 

“It’s an area of work where I’m never going to stop learning. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t learn something new,” Tyler said. 

During his time at the council he has designed community housing and planning work for the Maitai Dam, the York Valley Landfill, the Saxton Field complex, and has been involved in emergency management responses. 

“We get involved pretty quickly when there’s an event that happens, we’re one of the first to be called.”

In Tasman’s recent flooding, he helped to map their extent and prepared evacuation numbers. 

One of Tyler's recent highlights was working on Plan Change 29 – an overhaul of the city’s planning rules to allow taller buildings to be built without a resource consent which proved controversial with residents and was largely rejected by a panel of commissioners. 

“Even though it didn’t go through, there’s a lot of work in there that can be reused, so I’m proud of that.” 

It was the variety of work he does which has kept Tyler at the council for 50 years. 

“Plus the people – staff have been generally very, very good because, at the end of the day, you spend more of your waking time with your workmates than you do with your family.” 

Over the last five decades, Tyler has seen exponential shifts from manual systems of working to digital, attitudes towards work in the government sector growing more serious, and a surge in the work required of councils by central government. 

One of the greatest challenges in his line of work were the changing minds of politicians. “Most of the work that we do here is about giving the management, and also the politicians, well-informed information so they can base their decisions on that,” he said. 

“I don’t mind that, because it’s all part of the local authority work… I guess some could get frustrated because you don’t see the end product, whereas I see it… as part of that planning process.” 

Having now reached his 50-year goal, retirement was on Tyler's cards for November, and he was especially looking forward to getting back into lawn bowls, which he has played about as long as he has worked for the council. 

“Because I have an elderly mother, I’ve been spending more time on the weekends with her over the last four or five years – bowls has taken a sideline to that, so I’ll start taking that up.” 

A former president of Bowls Nelson, he thought it was likely he’d get involved in the community once again. 

“I’m not quite sure what that will be yet, but I won't be just sitting at home reading a book.” 

Tyler said he would miss work, but thought the council would manage without him. 

But if they don’t, he thought they might try and get him back for “the odd little project” in the future.

When asked if he would be on board for that, Tyler said he was, “as long as it’s not a full week”. 

-Local Democracy Reporting is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air

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