Locals fight to save Far North harbour

By TONY GEE

Two small Far North communities have set up a protection group to prevent part of an idyllic harbour being turned into a terminal for log barges.

The Rangaunu Harbour Protection Group, with 40 paid-up supporters, aims to fight a Sea-Tow proposal in any court necessary to stop 3000-tonne-capacity logging barges operating in the harbour from a port and terminal to be built at Kaimaumau.

Rangaunu Harbour, sandwiched between the Aupouri and Karikari Peninsulas north of Kaitaia, is known for its transparently clear water, white sand beaches, fishing and an internationally recognised wildlife sanctuary on sandy Walker Island.

International barging company Sea-Tow has told the Northland Regional Council it wants to operate two 3000-tonne-capacity barges, one covered and one uncovered, to carry logs and forestry products from Kaimaumau down the east coast to Marsden Pt, near Whangarei, each week.

The proposal would involve building a loading wharf beside a storage area and terminal at Kaimaumau on the harbour's western side.

A second terminal would be built at Marsden Pt to discharge log cargoes for export or for further processing.

No resource consent application has yet been filed but the regional council and Transfund have agreed to share the $40,000 cost of a study into the economic viability of barging logs from Kaimaumau down the Northland coast to Whangarei.

Their move follows recommendations in a recent Northland Integrated Transport Study report which calls for investigations into alternative transport methods to roads.

These include options such as barges and rail to carry increasing log volumes from Northland forests as a way to relieve pressure on the region's often-congested and substandard roads.

But residents at Rangiputa, on Rangaunu Harbour's eastern side, and those at Kaimaumau, on the western shore, are united in their alarm at the impact a regular barging service would have on the water quality, fishing, delicate marine eco-systems and recreational values in their harbour.

Protection group spokesman Dick Archer said destruction of the harbour and surrounding ecology during construction and operation of a barging enterprise was certain.

"So is the non-improvement of local highways and congestion on existing roads leading to the terminal via Mangonui and Kaitaia.

"It would be the end of Kaimaumau and Rangiputa villages as nice places to live."

Sand banks have naturally extended Walker Island in recent years into the barging operations area out from the proposed terminal.

Any log barge operation, together with the need for ongoing dredging for channel maintenance, would largely destroy the island's ecosystem and the sanctuary for endangered sea and wading birds, Mr Archer said.

The group also sees a log-barging port as an easy way out for national and regional roading authorities to delay badly needed road improvements.

"By establishing a port on public reserve land at Kaimaumau, they can export product and jobs out of the Far North, and avoid upgrading the road network," he says.

Residents are also suspicious of the Northland Regional Council's role in the proposed barging venture.

As the lead regulatory agency involved in the proposal, they point to the fact that the council has a 72 per cent shareholding in Whangarei and Marsden Pt port operating company Northland Port Corporation (Northport), which in turn owns half of Sea-Tow.

Australian public company Adsteam Marine owns the other half.

Use of Far North District Council public reserve land at Kaimaumau to build the port's log terminal has sparked additional debate, and could ultimately sink the entire barging project.

Far North Mayor Yvonne Sharp said she believed it was "extremely presumptuous" of the company to base part of its proposal on the use of district council reserve land.

"The matter has never been put to, or considered by my council," she said.

If, after the economic viability study, a decision is made to go ahead with the project, there would have to be a local community decision in favour.

The council's Kaitaia-based Northern Community Board would have to agree to revoke the reserve status of the Kaimaumau land needed for the terminal, and an application made for ministerial approval in Wellington.

"In my personal view, I don't think the proposal is practical," Mrs Sharp told the Herald.

Regional council planning and policy manager Glenn Mortimer said representatives of his council will meet members of the Far North District Council on August 7 in Kaikohe to discuss use of the reserve land for the barging venture.

"If the district council doesn't agree to use of the land, we'd seriously consider dropping the viability study," Mr Mortimer said.

The regional council might look for an alternative location on which to base a study "but we would have to go back to Sea-Tow on that", he said.

He agreed that if the district council was clearly against use of its land at Kaimaumau for a terminal, the project there was most likely to fail.

Harbour protection group members are to attend the August 7 meeting and will plan any further action depending on an outcome.