KEY POINTS:
Mayor Dick Hubbard and his council are dying to be seen as born-again guardians of Auckland's cultural and volcanic heritage.
With the proposed despoliation of the Orakei Basin volcano by property developers, it's time they matched their bluster with some action.
They've already nodded a 42-apartment development through on a non-notified basis, so the signs are not promising.
Now submissions have closed on a notified application for consent to build 203 apartments nearby at 228 Orakei Rd. Both developments sit atop the crest of the Orakei Basin volcano tuff ring. This is akin to building apartments around the rim of the crater of Mt Eden or One Tree Hill.
Putting aside, for a moment, the unique volcanic heritage of the site, what also astounds me is that these developments are to take place on the site - as yet unexplored - of a major Ngati Whatua pa.
In an "initial archaeological assessment" of the whole Orakei Rd peninsula prepared in 2002 for Auckland City, leading archaeologist Simon Best concluded that "as a site type the pa ... appears to be unique, in Auckland at least, due to its situation on a peninsula". This, "and its position, 4km from the centre of Auckland, puts it in a category of heritage importance second only to the volcanic cones".
It's ironic, given that Ngati Whatua has leased one of the sites for development, that Dr Best noted that the tribe regarded the area as "wahi tapu land", quoting a spokesman as saying it had "special spiritual, cultural and historical tribal significance".
Dr Best recommended that "the whole peninsula be regarded as a significant archaeological site" and called for a comprehensive survey and conservation plan.
Important as this human heritage may be, I agree with Dr Best that this comes second to its status as a volcanic cone.
Three years ago, Auckland City seemed set on ploughing through the sides of Orakei Basin to build the ill-fated Eastern Highway.
The highway was abandoned for reasons unconnected with the heritage in the way. But now this volcano is under threat again, expendable to developers, bureaucrats and politicians who don't seem to appreciate that because its crater rim is just a few metres above the ground, it is still just as worthy of protection as its brasher, taller siblings.
In a submission on behalf of the Geological Society of New Zealand, Bruce Hayward says Orakei Basin is "one of Auckland's more iconic volcanoes, arguably the city's best-preserved example of a tuff cone with a wide, water-filled crater".
"The form of the tuff cone is well defined, particularly on the north and west sides. On the north [Orakei Rd] side where these developments are proposed, the entire narrow peninsula above sea level is built up of erupted volcanic ash and is entirely part of the volcanic cone."
Noting the council's pledge to fight for world heritage status for the volcanic field, Dr Hayward points out that Orakei Basin "is one of the suite of better-preserved volcanoes currently high on the list of sites that would be included".
He says Auckland City bought land near the top of Mt St John to protect it from further degradation and to preserve view shafts, and "it is exactly these same values that will be degraded if these high-density developments are allowed to proceed".
Even if these applications go through in some form or other, Auckland City should ensure that the provisions of the long-lost 1915 act prohibiting steep cuts on Auckland volcanic cones be enforced.
As you might recall, then Prime Minister William Massey introduced the act in 1915 to prevent further destruction of "the volcanic hills in and around the city of Auckland ... "
Only a couple of weeks ago, GNZ Science volcanologist Graham Leonard revealed, after a summer of drilling 81m into the sediment inside Orakei Basin, that this volcano was around 60,000 years old, three times older than previously thought. It has survived remarkably intact over all that time. Now it's up to Mayor "Heritage" Hubbard and his council whether it exits Year 60,001 - local government election year, as it happens - in better or worse condition than it entered it.
