Park pipe rebuff - what would Father say?

Illustration / Peter Bromhead

Cornwall Park donor Sir John Logan Campbell's attitude was far different from those who guard his legacy.

As a long-time battler against further despoiling of Auckland's volcanic cones by the road builders and property developers, I'm a little nervous about supporting Watercare's desire to bury a large watermain along the outer fringes of Cornwall Park.

But the park trust board's refusal to allow the new Hunua 4 bulk watermain from Redoubt North Reservoir in Manukau to Khyber Pass to sneak along the eastern boundary of the park, does seem rather dog-in-the-mangerish.

Instead of a few sheep being upset as the diggers and rock-cutters excavate a five metre-deep trench from Campbell Rd through to Market Rd, it will be the nearby residents of Campbell Rd, Wheturangi Rd and Wapiti Ave who will instead have to endure weeks of street closures and house shaking as the 1.7m metre pipe slowly snakes its way along their streets to Market Rd and then, eventually, into the CBD.

As Herald correspondent Bruce Goodall pointed out yesterday, not only will residents have to park in adjacent streets for weeks at a time, but there will be major traffic congestion in the area for the duration. On top of that, Watercare estimates that not being able to take the short cut will add up to $7 million to the cost of the project.

As it's a $375 million project, the park board's attitude is that the extra cost, and the rolling disruption to its neighbours, is a small price to pay to protect the park from being violated.

It's hard to believe Sir John Logan Campbell, who gave the park and adjacent endowment land to the public just over 100 years ago, would have agreed with the trustees' action.

Dubbed the Father of Auckland, he was all for progress, and among his battles was the fight to get a water reservoir established on the slopes of One Tree Hill.

Five water supply reservoirs are housed in Cornwall Park (three) or on the adjoining One Tree Hill Domain.

The oldest was opened by Sir John himself in February 1902. This iron-roofed reservoir - surely a heritage structure now - was designed to supply water from the Onehunga springs, but was subsequently linked to first the Waitakere Ranges dams and later to the Hunua Ranges.

At the 1902 ceremony at the Onehunga Borough's new waterworks pumping station, Sir John had the honour of starting the machinery to begin pumping water up to the One Tree Hill holding reservoir, sited at the same height as an existing Mt Eden reservoir, to allow for future linkage. An 8 inch (20cm) main fed water along Manukau Rd to Newmarket, Remuera and Ellerslie.

Sir John was reported in the Auckland Star as saying "for 42 years he had been patiently waiting for that day".

He said he'd first called for such infrastructure at a public meeting in November 1859, at a time when Auckland "was destitute of any water supply, except what was caught from roofs, or worse, from insanitary wells."

He'd told that meeting, "that time had come when we must rectify the crying evil we were labouring under."

He told his 1902 audience, to much applause, of his hope that "our wealthier colonists would be donors of what would enable people to listen to the sweet music of rippling waters flowing from the fountains of their erection in Cornwall Park."

Evidence here, that Sir John had battled for half a century to ensure Auckland had a decent water supply, and of his joy that the "great reservoir" sited on his property was an integral part of it. Unlike the present day trustees of his dream, Sir John embraced the chance to be part of guaranteeing Aucklanders a healthy supply of fresh water.

Park director Michael Ayrton said the board had to be conscious of the "huge spiritual significance to local iwi," of the park.

He also said the existing reservoir and the interconnecting pipe network were "significant restraints around what we can do," and that "we didn't want another corridor through the park that would restrict future development".

Apparently the trustees were also concerned that if they gave way to the waterpipe, they'd be inundated with power lines, telephone cables and the like.

This is reasoning the Father of Auckland would, I suspect, have found unfathomable and against everything he believed in.