South Waikato stream restoration reveals long-lost walking track near Tokoroa

Pokaiwhenua Catchment Group co-ordinator Hadleigh Putt (centre) directs volunteers at the Whakauru Stream community tree planting day last Thursday.

When south Waikato contractor Aaron Palmer cleared wild blackberries from the banks of the Whakauru Stream near Tokoroa, he made an unexpected discovery: a long-forgotten punga-lined walking track from the 1980s.

Palmer was clearing the section in February for a community tree planting day by the Pokaiwhenua Catchment Group held last week.

Pokaiwhenua Catchment Group chairman Andrew Lennox said the “beautiful” walking track was originally a couple of kilometres long.

“I ... found out it was built by periodic detention workers in the 1980s. People used to walk their dogs along it but when Tokoroa was shrinking and there wasn’t the money to maintain it, the blackberry got away.”

The community planting day focused on a 200m stretch of the Whakauru Stream that runs past the newly opened South Waikato Trades Training Centre Pūkenga Rau and Manulife Building.

Catchment group co-ordinator Hadleigh Putt said the planting day attracted about 70 volunteers from several local groups such as South Waikato Investment Fund Trust (Swift), Te Ohomai Te Pūkenga, Manulife Forest Management, Raukawa Charitable Trust, the council and Fonterra.

Pokaiwhenua Catchment Group board chairman Andrew Lennox.

The volunteers planted 2200 trees and shrubs including renga renga, pittosporum, ake ake, māhoe, flax and cabbage tree that are set to stabilise the river’s banks.

“The streams around this area have a lot of sediment from stream bank erosion because exotics are not good species for holding banks. That stretch of river had a lot of willow along it that can clog streams and prevent water flow,” Putt said.

Apart from the benefits for the newly planted area at the Whakauru Stream, Putt said the group was excited about the community’s involvement and what it could mean for future projects.

Volunteers in action at the Whakauru Stream community tree planting day.

“The whole idea of our group is to reconnect the community and the catchment because everything in Tokoroa goes down the Pokaiwhenua.

“We’ve [previously] worked a lot with farmers encouraging them to plant and fence out stock to reduce effluent and nutrients going into streams but this is an urban project we’ve been looking for ways to get started on,” Putt said.

“We are grateful for projects like this where we can work with the people from Tokoroa because the streams go right through their backyard. Hopefully this project ... will be a showpiece for what can be done.”

The Whakauru Stream is a tributary of the Pokaiwhenua Stream that starts east of Kinleith and flows through Tokoroa and then north through South Waikato before feeding into the Waikato River near Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari.