Sedimentation simply is
…the most serious proximate issue affecting the Mahurangi Harbour
Transcending council boundaries in wahapū Mahurangi
When Mahurangi Action Incorporated was formed, in December 1974—as Friends of the Mahurangi—the local town council was seen as the enemy. The proximate threat, in the eyes of the community, was that the town council’s plans for a new wastewater treatment plant would…
Depraved indifference to humanity and the home planet
Aotearoa has demonstrated that democracy can work. Globally, however, covid-19 demonstrates the deadly degree to which governmental and intergovernmental governance, democratic or otherwise, is grossly unfit-for-purpose. The world’s ascendant…
Ceding second-Wednesdays for fourth-Thursdays
As of midnight last Monday, dredging the town basin and river downstream became the most urgent Mahurangi project. Up until that deadline, feedback on the structure plan that will shape development of Mahurangi’s tidehead town for…
Super Masonic solution to blank riverbank wall
Mahurangi Magazine has stuck its neck out by soliciting support for its suggested solution to the ugly butt of the Old Masonic Hall. The timing was poor. Six days before Christmas meant that most folk missed the email and, as of this morning, only…
‘Up the Mahu!’ day-after-the-regatta flotilla
There could only be one flagship for the ‘Up the Mahu!’ day-after-the-regatta demonstration. The Jane Gifford scow, aside from being the face of the Mahurangi Regatta since 2010, following her heroic restoration, epitomises the necessity of…
Time for town hall to take it to city hall
Warkworth Town Hall, inescapably, is where the community should assemble to make decisions for itself. Not the Auckland Town Hall, with its region-wide responsibilities for a city of 1.7 million. In a slightly less imperfect world, Mahurangi…
Mahurangi mussels in to save the planet
Green-lipped-mussel-reef establishment might seem an unlikely choice for a climate-change tour-de-force by the organisation that revived the Mahurangi Regatta 42 years ago this summer. But Mahurangi Action believes that the beauty of the…
Second time science mussels into the Mahurangi
The first time science brought its muscle to bear was in 2004. After ten years of studies aimed at baselining selected catchments ahead of urban development impacts, the scientists involved persuaded the former Auckland Regional Council that…
Strategic significance of river restoration
As submitted by Mahurangi Action Incorporated 28 March 2018: Mahurangi Action supports the urgent funding of the consented dredging of sediment from the Mahurangi River, to restore the navigability of the river up to and including the Warkworth…
Now the commission wants to explore
At least Ōrewa is equally inconvenient for all Rodney residents. In its case for twin local board areas, the Mahurangi Magazine pointed out: So disparate are the areas, that meetings of the Rodney Local Board are held in Ōrewa, which is in neither half. Now…
Warkworth, the watershed, and the whitebait
Mahurangi was always going to need all the help it could get. When, in 2004, the then Auckland Regional Council announced a $3 million, 5-year kickstart to address the harbour’s elevated sediment accumulation rate, Mahurangi Action was advised…
Mahurangi Action states its support for dredging
Mahurangi Action Incorporated is strongly in support of the application for resource consent by the Mahurangi River Restoration Trust to undertake capital and maintenance dredging of the Mahurangi River and to deposit dredging material at 121 Hepburn…
Portals could power town-basin transformation
Warkworth doesn’t boast of much of a town basin. Topographically, the tidal Mahurangi River terminates in a bit of a tight squeeze, compared with, for example, Whangārei. But what Warkworth lacks by way of a commodious tidal headwater…
Work on Warkworth pilot to reduce sediment generation
Omelettes can’t be made without cracking eggs, nor roads and houses built without moving a certain amount of earth. On the big jobs, such as residential subdivisions, the resource consents required ensure that robust controls are put in place, which…
Mahurangi River Town Basins, Landings and Navigation Plan
The Mahurangi River Town Basins, Landings and Navigation Plan broadly involves: 1.) Dredging within the Warkworth town basin to restore the ability of visiting boats to remain afloat throughout the tidal cycle; 2.) Dredging parts of the channel of the…
Motorway harbour’s biggest threat since deforestation
Clearly, something has to be done. State Highway 1 between Pūhoi and Wellsford is lethal, and at times congested. In 2010, the Campaign for Better Transport in its Operation Lifesaver document came up with two options, either of which, by now…
Old Masonic Hall to see new public forum
Local government reform always provokes vociferous reaction. The Royal Commission on Auckland Governance, regardless of how democratically or otherwise it proceeded, was always going to aggrieve a goodly percentage of the region. The semi-rural…
Avoid ‘dredging’ with access code
Dredging, by definition, is a dirty business. Which is why the draft working paper addressing the issue uses the code access. While many will see this as inexcusable political correctness, it is actually entirely sound to define the objective, rather than just one...
Marine farming the nasty way or the nice way
There are two ways to stop teredo. Build oyster farms from unpalatable material, or from palatable material impregnated with poisons. Biomarine, for its vast new Kaipara harbour farm, has chosen to eschew poisons such as chromium arsenates. Instead of…
Yes to shift a few tons of this earthly delight
The dream of dredging the Mahurangi River to restore its navigability fills some with hope, some with dread. The vast majority would welcome it, but only if it could be accomplished without further despoiling the already severely stressed benthic…
Hoping for a soft recovery for harbour
Is the river getting cleaner? Several times this week I’ve seen small shoals of baby squid, near to where the watering wharf might go. I’ve never seen them before in the river. Do other people normally see them but I have missed them, or is this…
A network for Mahurangi restoration and enjoyment
Four years to the day. When folk meet for the first time as the ‘Mahurangi Initiative Forum’, on 23 February 2009, it will be precisely four years since the Wenderholm meeting that was held to discuss the formation of a Mahurangi catchment trust. At first glance…
Sediment as a resource – another way to skin the cat
It took some longer than it did others. At the community discussion of the Mahurangi Action Plan on 10 September, Warkworth resident Jefferson Chapple challenged the gathering to think of sediment as a resource. Some believed they…
Kid’s eco-camps continue wholesome tradition
The two ‘eco-camps’ planned this month for 8–13-year-olds as part of the Mahurangi Action Plan activities continue a worthy tradition of summer camps in the harbour. The Schoolhouse Bay property, which Rex Fairburn found for Mahurangi Action founder…
Child of the Mahurangi states forests need buffer zones
Forum South-East Asian Survey Congress My name is Tegan Illingworth. I am nine years old and I live in Warkworth, which is north of Auckland and Auckland is the biggest city in New Zealand. I am here to share information about Waicare. One reason I am in Waicare is I...
Walk down to a stream, see crystal-clear water
Forum South-East Asian Survey Congress My name is Lottie Thompson. I’m eleven years old and I live in the Mahurangi Catchment. I’m here to represent my district, Rodney. We are here to share what we do to help our area. My passions are horses and the environment. When...
I thought it was naturally a muddy brown colour
Forum South-East Asian Survey Congress My name is Rebekah Liebezeit. I am 13 years old and I live in the Mahurangi area, one hour north of Auckland. I am also part of the group called the Stream Rescue Team. This group of about fifteen students concentrates on...
Children of the Mahurangi thank their sponsors
As we prepare to depart this evening, a huge thank you to the councils, individuals, community organisations, and companies (listed below) who have contributed financially toward the costs of sending the children to Christchurch to present to the South-East Asian...
High-impact cartoon could spark low-impact design revolution
Earlier yesterday, quite coincidentally, I tried to call Ross Kinnaird, to sound him out about a new personal project—the trifling matter of fixing MMP. I haven’t spoken to Ross for some time; the last was at Georg Kohlap’s funeral. We might have had a serious session...
Today we meet Ms Morresey at Ransom Wines
The editor is looking forward to it. A gathering with prospects for more human and meaningful exchanges—after two ‘meet the candidates’ meetings, with several more to come. Purposeful, positive, discussion one-on-one or in small groups in…
That sublime feeling: My work here is done
I just had to call Shane Hartley. Fortunately for Shane he was on the phone, so I had to contain my excitement and write an email. Others hadn’t been quite so lucky that afternoon and quite a lot of phone time was spent reporting an historic breakthrough: The...
Award-winning presenters warm up at strategy and policy meeting
The students’ Stream Rescue Team can be seen in action at Rodney District Council’s strategy and policy meeting this Thursday at 9 am. Representatives of the Stream Rescue Team, made up of 10–13-year-old students from the Warkworth Homeschool Group and Warkworth...
After decades of inaction, action plan for clean up
New Mahurangi Action Plan project leader, Kim Morresey, has helped set up a meeting of stakeholders determined to end the impasse over derelict oyster farms. Responsibility for governance of marine farming now rests with Auckland Regional Council. The transfer of...
Children of the Mahurangi Stream Rescue Team
Richard Bromley Gillian Irons Ira Seitzer A group of about forty 9–13-year-old primary school children from the Warkworth Home School group and Warkworth Primary School have been involved for the past three years with the Auckland Regional Council’s Mahurangi Action...
Invitation to come meet Ms Morresey
We were discussing the curious characteristics of committees. I mentioned, to the new Mahurangi Action Plan project leader, that the last ‘formal’ Friends of the Mahurangi meeting was a year ago, and at Ransom Wines. And then felt it necessary to quickly explain that...
A great harbour worth saving
L e t t e r Jim Dollimore, Biomarine Limited Since [13 July] we have had another storm!—I will have to close the factory for at least a week and send the staff on holiday. However the oyster farm and oyster culling staff will be around and it is a good opportunity for...
Jim’s ill wind
The concept is consummate. With a severe storm approaching, faced with the likelihood of the harbour being closed for up to five days, and the prospect of having to lay off four or five workers until harvesting recommenced, Jim Dollimore emailed the editor suggesting...
Induction emphasises derelict marine farm opportunity
She was fresh home from a sailing holiday in Tonga. But Kim Morresey was only too happy to be back on the water, and as a seafood enthusiast, couldn’t be happier that it was aboard a Mahurangi oyster barge. Sadly, oysters were not on the menu, the…
mg parts manufacturer as Mahurangi West farmer
Liverpudlian Mike Neil did not become a New Zealander by accident. Nor did he come to live in the Mahurangi by accident. Becoming a Mahurangi West farmer was accidental—owning another farm was something he and his partner, Norma Neil, had…