'A big, expensive problem': Wairoa still cleaning up after Gabrielle

Wairoa earth-moving contractor Jamie Mackay is dwarfed by piles of silt left by Cyclone Gabrielle as he clears the front paddocks at Turiroa. Picture by Wairoa Star

by Ann Revington, Wairoa Star

Nearly a year after muddy silt from Cyclone Gabrielle entered Wairoa’s homes, businesses, farms and infrastructure, an earth-moving contractor has been removing piles of it from the front paddock of Turiroa Station.

Jamie Mackay spent nearly a week on the job at Andrew and Tracey Powdrell’s Turiroa Angus stud farm late last month.

Much of it had already been used to fill hollows, but there were still two huge mounds — over five metres high — which Mr Mackay brought to the front gate for removal.

He uncovered water troughs which had spent 10 months buried in silt. Dams had been filled with it too.

When he started, there were areas 1.3m to 1.4m deep and level with the entranceway and there was easily 1.5m of silt deposited in the front paddock before the silt removal.

Fences on both sides were gone and several trees had not survived.

“It has been so wet and difficult just getting in and doing the job this year,” he said.

All around the district there was still work to be done, with dams full of silt.

“With some fine weather, the earth-moving contractors can get back in and clear them. There is a lot of work for the Wairoa contractors. It has caused a big, expensive problem around the district and it is still really quite mind-boggling.”