Harbour edge tipped for maritime training centre

By ANNE GIBSON

Moves are afoot to build a centre for marine excellence on Auckland's waterfront.

The new centre would specialise in providing resources for the $1.4 billion seafood export business and $700 million burgeoning boat building industry.

It is one of the main ideas which has emerged from top-level Australian and New Zealand land owners, planners, designers and architects who attended an Auckland waterfront talkfest last month.

Malcolm Latham, chairman of the Auckland Waterfront Advisory Group, said the workshop members had discussed the need for training in the fishing, boat-building and marine industries and the most likely place for such a centre was on the harbour edge.

With the fishing industry generating $1.4 billion of exports annually and the fast-growing boat-building business urgently needing skilled workers, those charged with Auckland's expansion see the need to join Auckland University to establish a new training centre.

This ties in with Competitive Auckland's Innovation Harbour project to promote the city and build on the city's capabilities, Latham said.

The waterfront advisory group has to come up with a blueprint which would change 32ha of industrial wasteland on the western reclamation - from Westhaven Marina to the Viaduct Basin including the tank farm on Wynyard Wharf - into a new social heart for Auckland. But the project is not expected to start for five years and not be completed for about 20 years.

Latham - a Sydney-based international urban planner - said a central plank of any waterfront redevelopment would involve retaining the maritime and fishing activities which are central to the uses of the land now.

The rapid development of this country's marine industry meant a huge challenge for the Boating Industry Association - finding the people to fill the jobs created by the boom. The shortage of skilled labour is not just at the top end of the industry, it is also being faced by the hundreds of smaller companies throughout the country.

The fishing industry also faces a growing skills shortage, particularly lacking technologists, says the seafood industry economic review 1997-2001 published by the Seafood Industry Council.

Competitive Auckland is moving ahead with its Innovation Harbour initiative and working with the biotechnology and marine industries. A steering group has been set up to help develop the project, which would comprise a cluster of marine industries, a learning centre to meet the skills needed by this fast-growing industry, a research facility and a tourism/heritage component.

But no location has been decided on. So Latham and his advisory group have put forward the idea of building the new marine centre on the waterfront, and making a start by using existing buildings to establish the centre, with the help of Auckland University's engineering faculty.

Stuart Hornery, also from Sydney and on the advisory group, said there was considerable scope for a marine centre to be built on Auckland's waterfront.

Hornery is head of the Australian National Training Authority and sees the need to enhance NZ's international reputation in the maritime industries by providing a skilled workforce.

In his speech to the Skill New Zealand conference held in Wellington last month, Hornery stressed the need for a training centre on the waterfront land. nte

The advisory group is seeking public feedback and has just launched a web site.

Last month, the group revealed that a suburb larger than Herne Bay and St Marys Bay combined could be built in the area, but it has also talked about conference/exhibition space, restaurants, hotels, shops and offices.

The group is due to outline broad concepts indicating the likely scale of buildings, public spaces, precincts and neighbourhoods next month.

The Tank Farm Project

Skill NZ

Australian National Training Authority

Hornery Institute

NZ Seafood Industry