Gulls make home on reshaped island

Central Earth Worx diggers have finished their work rearranging the island at Henley Lake to create a lane for dragon boats and waka ama.

The diggers have left the reshaped island in Henley Lake but the black-billed gulls have stayed.

Masterton deputy mayor Graham McClymont said yesterday the diggers returned to the mainland on Tuesday, having put the finishing touches to how the island was to look, apart from being planted up.

The water course to be used by dragon boaters and waka ama crews has been formed and Mr McClymont said both clubs had offered to help with replanting the island.

"As it was, we saved all the native plants disturbed by the work that was done and have replanted those," he said.

The digger work was done within budget, thanks to Geoff Busch and Graeme Edwards of Central Earthworx, who kept to the agreed price even though the job ran over by a few days.

Mr McClymont said the only additional cost had been incurred by having to hire a barge to ferry a concrete breaker to the island when an unexpected concrete structure had been uncovered by the diggers and needed to be smashed up.

That had cost around $2000.

"Even then, I may have been able to risk getting the concrete breaker over by some other means, but I was a bit gun-shy by then and could just imagine having the concrete breaker stranded in the middle of the lake, begging to be rescued."

Mr McClymont said that, overall, the weather had been kind to the crew doing the work and now that it was all over he had been fielding "compliments from all over the place, especially as we seem to have created a haven for the black-billed gulls".

The island is to be replanted but the intention is to leave a portion of it in metal so the gulls can colonise it.