$78m plan to ease ferry crush

By BERNARD ORSMAN

The historic Queens Wharf on the Auckland waterfront could be broken up to create a town basin for expanding ferry services.

The $78 million project would involve slicing Queens Wharf into three, then demolishing the middle segment and creating a water space.

The end section of Queens Wharf would be joined to nearby Captain Cook Wharf to create an L-shaped wharf and a town basin at the foot of Queen St.

The new basin - with shops, restaurants and water taxi berths - would be a few hundred metres east of the rejuvenated Viaduct Basin.

It would link with the proposed $280 million Britomart train and bus station.

Queens Wharf has been Auckland's principal wharf since it was built in 1852.

Auckland historian Professor Russell Stone said the wharf was emotionally the heart of the city and it would be a sad day if that link with the past was snapped.

"If you trample on a city's roots you trample on its dreams."

Professor Stone said the ship Anna Watson landed the first stores for Auckland in September 1840 at the bottom of Horotiu Stream, which ran down Queen St.

Sketches from the 1840s show goods from England and Australia being unloaded into canoes and small boats in Commercial Bay at the bottom of Queen St.

The Auckland City Council has started talking to Ports of Auckland with a view to buying the downtown ferry facilities and eventually creating a town basin.

In the meantime, the council wants to improve the ferry terminal by upgrading the facilities, providing better access, parking and shifting the gulf ferries on to Queens Wharf.

The harbour ferries would move to where the gulf ferries are now.

Auckland City and North Shore City Council are also looking to buy the Devonport, Northcote Point and Birkenhead ferry wharves from Ports of Auckland to keep the harbour's ferry assets in public ownership.

Ports of Auckland wants to quit its ferry assets, which have a book value of about $12 million.

Chief Auckland City planner John Duthie said the downtown terminal was already crowded with ferries at peak hours but the key issue to resolving the problem was funding.

There was little likelihood of being able to secure full funding for the grand scheme in the short term but the council wanted to get a "first right of refusal" from the ports company to head off developers, he said.

The idea is that Infrastructure Auckland would pay for most of the Queens Wharf project, Ports of Auckland pay for benefits the new wharf would provide for its own use, and some money would come from the council.

Auckland and North Shore councils are confident Infrastructure Auckland would pay to buy the other ferry wharves plus the cost of upgrading the facilities.

North Shore city services manager Clive Fuhr said the council believed it was important to secure the ferry wharves in public ownership and remove some of the exclusive use rights that had affected competition and services.

Herald Online feature: Getting Auckland moving

Herald Online traffic reports