Henderson Valley/Opanuku Local Area Plan Background … · Henderson Valley Landscape Assessment...

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Background Report: Henderson Valley/Opanuku

Local Area Plan

A discussion paper on Henderson Valley/Opanuku Version: Proposed LAP, June 2010

Cover Image: 1947 Aerial View of Henderson Valley, looking westwards. Image provided courtesy of Melean Absolum.

Driving Stream GoldenWest Orchard

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Table of Contents 1. Introduction.............................................................................................................. 4

2. Local Area Plan Boundary ...................................................................................... 4

3. Heritage Features..................................................................................................... 5

3.1. Human Culture ....................................................................................................................5 3.1.1. History .............................................................................................................................5 3.1.2. Heritage sites ................................................................................................................12 3.1.3. Soil contamination.........................................................................................................14 3.1.4. Community statistics .....................................................................................................16 3.2. Recreation and Reserves..................................................................................................18 3.3. Social Infrastructure ..........................................................................................................20 3.4. Henderson Valley Primary School ....................................................................................20 3.5. Employment and Businesses............................................................................................21 3.6. Transportation and Access ...............................................................................................22 3.6.1. Road Traffic counts .......................................................................................................22 3.6.2. Public Transport ............................................................................................................23 3.6.3. Walkways and cycleways..............................................................................................23 3.7. Ecological Features...........................................................................................................26 3.7.1. Streams in the Opanuku catchment ..............................................................................26 3.7.2. Flora and fauna .............................................................................................................29 3.7.3. Monitoring .....................................................................................................................32 3.8. Landscape and Landform Features ..................................................................................32 3.8.1. Waitakere Ranges Landscape Study............................................................................32 3.8.2. Henderson Valley Landscape Assessment...................................................................33 3.8.2.1. Very high sensitivity ......................................................................................................34 3.8.2.2. High sensitivity ..............................................................................................................34 3.8.2.3. Elevated sensitivity........................................................................................................34 3.8.2.4. Limited sensitivity ..........................................................................................................35 3.8.2.5. Low sensitivity ...............................................................................................................35 3.9. Three Waters ....................................................................................................................36 3.9.1. Water Supply.................................................................................................................36 3.9.1.1. Reticulated supply.........................................................................................................36 3.9.1.2. On-site roof tank water supply.......................................................................................36 3.9.1.3. Risk factors ...................................................................................................................36 3.9.1.4. Actions that can be taken to reduce risk .......................................................................37 3.9.2. Wastewater ...................................................................................................................38 3.9.2.1. Risks associated with on-site wastewater .....................................................................38 3.9.2.2. Issues raised by the community ....................................................................................40 3.9.2.3. Actions that can be taken to reduce risk from on-site wastewater ................................40 3.9.3. Stormwater, Flooding and Streams...............................................................................40 3.9.3.1. Flooding ........................................................................................................................41 3.9.3.2. Stormwater impact on Waterways.................................................................................42 3.9.3.3. Countryside & Foothills Stormwater Management Code of Practice ............................42

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4. The District Plan..................................................................................................... 43

4.1. Development of planning controls.....................................................................................43 4.2. Current District Plan provisions.........................................................................................44 4.2.1. Natural Areas ................................................................................................................45 4.2.2. Human Environments....................................................................................................47 4.2.3. District Plan Subdivision Controls .................................................................................49 4.2.4. Objectives .....................................................................................................................49 4.2.5. Potential for more houses in the valley under the existing rules ...................................50 4.3. Subdivision Issues ............................................................................................................53 4.3.1. Large Properties............................................................................................................54 4.3.2. Rural/Urban Interface Management Areas....................................................................60 4.3.3. Subdivision - The Proposed Response.........................................................................63 4.4. Waitakere Ranges Plan Changes .....................................................................................65 4.4.1. Plan Change 35 ............................................................................................................65 4.4.2. Plan Change 36 ............................................................................................................65

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1. INTRODUCTION This report supports the Henderson Valley/Opanuku Local Area Plan (LAP) in context and describes its heritage features. Along with the Waitakere Ranges Foothills background report, the boundary report and consultation report, this report helps explain the decision making for the objectives, policies and actions of the LAP. There are various reports, plans, maps and other documents referred to in this report. Some of those will be attached as appendices and some of the figures included within this report are also attached as A3 images. 2. LOCAL AREA PLAN BOUNDARY The Henderson Valley/Opanuku study area is shown in Figure 1. The area (taking Henderson Valley School as its centre) is 10 km from New Lynn, 4.5 km from Henderson, 7 km from Titirangi and 6 km from Glen Eden, as the crow flies.

Figure 1: Map of the Henderson Valley/Opanuku Study Area

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The boundary of the area included within the Henderson Valley/Opanuku Local Area Plan is limited by the location of the Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area boundary to the east (also aligning closely with the Metropolitan Urban Limit (MUL)). Existing Local Area Plans (LAPs) for Waiatarua and Oratia also help define a maximum southern and western extent. The boundary generally coincides with the upper catchment and headwaters of the Opanuku Stream, which flows from the forested bush clad hills just below Scenic Drive, east though the lower, flatter and more pastoral ‘Valley’ and then into the urban area of the city. The Henderson Valley Residents Association defines its boundary as being “…more or less the district west of the intersection of Pine Ave and Henderson Valley Rd, north of Forest Hill Road, east of Scenic Drive and south of Coulter Rd”. The Upper Opanuku Catchment extends generally from Forest Hill Road, to Scenic Drive, to Christian Road. Other boundaries are also in use for a variety of purposes in the area. These include the school enrolment zone, postal codes and Census Area Units (CAU). The roading pattern plays a large part in the ‘feeling of belonging’ to an area. The community that reside at the end of Christian Road, and in Welsh Hills Road, feel that they belong to the Swanson area rather than to Henderson Valley/Opanuku area. This is because although their area is in the catchment of the Opanuku Stream, the roading pattern links with Swanson, with no direct links to Henderson Valley/Opanuku. The Boundary Report for Henderson Valley/Opanuku LAP provides more detail on how the boundary for the area was determined. 3. HERITAGE FEATURES

3.1. Human Culture

3.1.1. History Opanuku means “the place of Panuku” and the name referred to the whole of the valley from the head of the stream to Henderson Creek. It is said that Nihotupu a Turehu, thought to be one of the first inhabitants of the Waitakere Ranges, lived in a cave at the base of the Rua-o-te-whenua hill (on which the television tower now stands) in Waiatarua. While on a food gathering expedition to Bethells Beach/Te Henga, Nihotupu came across the cultivation known as ‘Mara o Parekura’ or ‘the garden of Parekura’ cultivated by a local chief, Panuku and his wife Parekura. Nihotupu stole Parekura who was working in the gardens at the time, along with gourds from the garden. Parekura cleverly left a trail of white feathers from her cloak made of toroa or albatross feathers in order that her husband Panuku might follow the trail and free her. Panuku followed the trail back to the cave where Nihotupu lived and had taken his hostage, Parekura. On arrival Panuku challenged Nihotupu to a fight which Nihotupu lost, along with his life1. The stream and hill next to Rua-o-te-whenua were named after the maiden of the story, Parekura (the hill is also known locally as Sugarloaf Hill, Figures 2 and 3) and the main stream carries the name of Panuku, the O’Panuku.

1 Taken from the book West Auckland Remembers

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Early Maori inhabitants made tracks to and from the Kaipara to the Whau Portage and the Waitemata and Manukau Harbours, up Henderson Valley/Opanuku in the foothills of the Waitakere Ranges and many of the present day roads follow these old trails. This information in this report is a summary of local Maori history in Henderson Valley/Opanuku and is not intended to be a complete and full account of occupation in the area. Two iwi are currently recognised as holding manawhenua within Waitakere City, Te Kawerau a Maki and Ngati Whatua. Waitakere City Council works closely with these two iwi, as well as with urban Maori groups. This two-way discussion provides information on key concerns in relation to the Waitakere Ranges from a variety of perspectives (there is no one ‘mäori’ view) as suggesting ways of addressing contemporary concerns and providing opportunities for greater interaction with and celebration of the history, cultural and natural resources of this area.

Figure 2 (left): Sugarloaf Hill from Dreamlands Road [now Opanuku Road] JTD-14N-00611 Photographer: John Diamond, 1951. J. T. Diamond Collection, 00611 (14N) Waitakere Library and Information Services Figure 3 (below): Parekura/Sugarloaf Hill as viewed from Gum Rd, late 2009. Vegetation has regrown and the land is now within the Regional Parkland accessible via Ferndown Track, joining Grassmere and Opanuku Roads.

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Much of the land now in Henderson Valley was bought from local Maori in 1853 as a small part of the large Hikurangi purchase negotiated by the Crown2. Thomas Henderson, after whom the wider area is named, came to New Zealand in 1840 and in 1843 exchanged his schooner, Lucy Dunn, with local chiefs for 17,784 acres of land. Following government intervention (as the sale was private and not via the Crown, as required by the Treaty of Waitangi), repossession of the schooner, and personal approval by Governor-General Grey, the final area was some 4,000 acres granted as a ‘timber diocese’ in 1847. Henderson later consolidated and added to the initial cutting rights with further purchases. Timber cut from the Valley and from the wider Ranges was processed at Henderson’s Mill until supplies were depleted with the mill closing in 1868 after cutting an estimated 30 million timberfeet of native timbers (mainly kauri, rimu, totara, and kahikatea). This was only a small percentage of the total timber felled in the Ranges, as Hendersons Mill was only one of several operating in the area, and only cut timber from Hendersons land or concessions and some by contract to other mills. In addition, a significant percentage of that felled and dragged to the creek holding dams was ruined by the ‘fresh’ – the release of the dams in the head waters in time of natural flood to wash the logs down to the Mill3. By this time Henderson’s Mill and the town growing around it was transforming to a rural service centre for the farmer settlers who followed the millers onto the logged out land. In 1895 Mander and Bradley bought cutting rights to the upper Nihotupu and devised a complex tramway to carry the timber out, a far less destructive and wasteful4 method of transporting logs than the driving dams (Figure 4). The tramway also allowed direct connection to the newly completed Auckland to Helensville railway, via the new station in Henderson which was also a somewhat ‘safer’ but certainly more reliable alternative to coastal shipping. The tramway was 9km long and included a drop of 300 metres in less than 2 kilometres, extending along the Dreamlands ridge (near the top of Opanuku Rd) and ending at the Henderson railway station. Figure 5 shows a 1940 aerial photograph of Henderson Valley, which clearly shows the pastoral nature of the area.

2 All information for this section was taken from A Valley and its School: Henderson Primary Jubilee 1915-1990. There are a number of conflicting accounts of the circumstances, timing and acreage purchased by Thomas Henderson. 3 Henderson later denounced the practice (much to the consternation of his old business partner W. McFarlane) at a Parliamentary Select Committee considering the passage of a bill to protect mill owners from the protestations of adjacent landowners from the effects of the flooding and logs on their land and welfare. If he had to do it all over again he would have used tramlines, to reduce waste and increase productivity at the mill with a more certain supply. Henderson himself did not experience the issues the bill was trying to address, owning all the land himself, or where selling land around the Mill (later becoming Henderson) setting aside reserves and esplanades along the stream bank to protect his ability to flood. 4 William Swanson, another famous early identity and logger, and also later conservationist, considered that less than half of the timber cut managed to make it down to his mill, much of which being waterlogged and splintered. Even the best logs were cut into 8m/20ft lengths to make it down without jamming, from 24m/50ft lengths of flawless trunk, also reducing the sale price, Kauri being particularly prized for ship spars, requiring long lengths. The 20ft maximum lengths are partly why this magnificent tree and its beautiful timber was used then, much as pine is today, for uses such as house framing, packing, crates and boxes.

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Figure 5: Henderson Valley/ Opanuku Aerial, 1940

Figure 4: Mander and Bradley's tramway up from Henderson Valley. Photographer unknown, c1897. J. T. Diamond Collection, 05808

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Henderson Valley School5 opened in 1915 with 19 students, following concerns about road conditions and overcrowding at Henderson School, and in response to increasing settlement in the area. The first school was in a 12ft square temporary building on a site on Gum Rd, moving across the road to its present site in 1922. Land use in the Valley has evolved in response to changes in circumstance and history, rural economics and increasing wealth and leisure time. Subdivision, enabling an increase in the resident population has played a large role in the evolution of the Valley: In the late 1880’s there were four principal land purchasers, Baxter, Lamb, Woodward and Colebrook, buying their cut over areas from Thomas Henderson. These families owned significant properties in the Valley and it was Colebrook’s block in particular where large development occurred in later years. This area was known as Dreamlands (Opanuku Rd) and Mt Pleasant (Grassmere Rd). Dreamlands Estate was established with sections ranging in size from 0.2 to 4 hectares and the property was marketed as looking out over an exquisite panorama of land and sea (Figures 6, 7 and 8).

Figure 6: Henderson Valley from Sturges Road

Photographer: John T Diamond, 1979. J.T. Diamond Collection 2003 05554 (14N) Waitakere Library and Information Services

Figure 7: From Pukematekeo over Henderson Valley to City

Photographer: Isabel Hooker, 1942. J. T. Diamond Collection, 03089 (14N)

Waitakere Library and Information Services

5 A more detailed history of the school can be found in the commemorative book ‘A Valley and its School’

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The venture was commercially unsuccessful as was the related development at Mt Pleasant following the 1929 Wall Street Crash, the precursor to the Great Depression. The Valley started to become more populated in the 1920s as soldiers took up government land leases. The bridge on Candia Rd was built around this time and Ferndale (later to become Carey Park) was developed as a picnicking spot for day tripping motorists, complete with dance hall, tea kiosk and stream bathing (Figure 9).

Figure 9: Leman's Lake, Dreamlands Photographer: George Haycock, 1930s. J. T. Diamond Collection, 02544 (14A) Waitakere Library and Information Services By 1925 milling in the area was over as all the large timber had been removed – Hendersons Mill had closed some 30 years earlier, and pastoral farming and agricultural activities were becoming the predominant land use. Pleasant Valley Wines was established at the turn of the century and in the 1920s in a practice ahead of it’s time, the Groshek–Muaga vineyard (on the corner of Simpson and Candia Roads) sold preservative, spray-free and additive-free wines, promoting wine as healing substance, even offering a wine-based ointment for dogs.

Figure 8: Land Auction flyer from 1939, for land near the top of (what is now) Opanuku Rd Terms were £5 deposit and £1 per month for 3 years (Total of £41). “One of the most beautiful valleys and bush clad mountain tops in the Auckland Provence. Only 30 Minutes from the City”

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Poultry farming also started to increase, with a number of farms established in the valley, producing eggs and meat, as well as supplying chicks for the many other farms in the wider area.

Figure 10: Refreshment rooms at Ferndale, now Carey Park Photographer: John Diamond photograph, 1954. J.T. Diamond Collection 14A-00653 Waitakere Library and Information Services The Henderson Valley Community Hall was completed in 1958 but not moved to the school grounds, from its original location on the corner of Candia and Henderson Valley Roads, until the 1990’s. In the 1960s dairy farming in the Valley declined (the valley was the site of the last ‘town supply’ dairy farm operating in the west, the original 4 berth milking shed still stands on the Dean brothers Golden West Orchards property (Figure 11)).

Figure 11: Original 4 berth milking shed to rear. The same decade saw the 130 acre farm on Grassmere Rd finally subdivided and sold off, following the previously unsuccessful subdivision plan surveyed in the 1920’s.

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The Bahai National Centre building was established in the 1980s, after nearly 35 years of camping based retreats and picnicking. Around the same time, the vineyard which gave Vineyard Road its name ‘Kiwi Valley’ farm park complex was established by resource consent (under the Waitakere District Plan) in 1998. Over a century after the first European settlers arrived in the valley, the area continues to evolve and change in response to rural land use trends and changes, increasing pressure from urban development and visitors from the growing city/region of Auckland on its doorstep.

3.1.2. Heritage sites The Cultural Heritage Inventory (CHI) is a computer database that contains information on historic and cultural heritage within the Auckland Region. The CHI includes: archaeological sites historic buildings, places, objects and structures maritime places and areas reported historic places and areas historic trees and other botanical sites

In addition, it includes places that are recognised by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust (NZHPT) in their register, places scheduled for protection in District Plans and archaeological sites recorded in the New Zealand Archaeological Association (NZAA) Site Record File. Many other historic places from various sources have been added to the database for their heritage values. These sources include Territorial Authorities, NZHPT, Department of Conservation (DoC), Ministry for the Environment (MfE), NZAA, Department of Anthropology at the University of Auckland, historic societies and iwi authorities. The CHI identifies sites but does not provide formal protection. If sites are considered suitable and with the landowners consent some of the items may also be protected by legislation, and/or the District Plan. The Historic Places Act 1992 automatically protects any archaeological site (being classified as evidence of human occupation or use prior to 1900) whether the site is listed, scheduled or otherwise, and also includes Shipwrecks. The Historic Places Trust also has the power to schedule items of particular historic interest, and permission must be received from the HPT to modify or destroy an archaeological site, or a scheduled item, in addition to any resource consent requirements. The Waitakere City Council District Plan also lists a number of items of particular local, regional or national interest, including archaeological sites, evidence of past industries, built heritage, and heritage vegetation. Resource consent is required for modification or destruction of these sites, other than for minor repairs – if an item is listed in the District Plan, the Council is also able to provide assistance to the owner in relation to the preservation and restoration of the item. The map at Figure 12 illustrates the location of the known heritage sites in Henderson Valley from the CHI and NZAA databases and the Waitakere City Council District Plan. The table below provides a brief description of each item:

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Figure 12: Historic Heritage Sites in Henderson Valley/Opanuku Table 1: Description and location of CHI sites and Waitakere City Council District Plan Heritage sites in Henderson Valley

Item Location

Cultural Heritage Inventory number

District Plan Heritage Appendix Number

Henderson Valley Primary School 389 Henderson Valley Road 3415 1278

Oak tree Corner Candia and Henderson Valley Road 12902 n/a

Kauri tree 140 Opanuku Road 2232 333 Kauri tree 142 Opanuku Road n/a 333 Pleasant Valley Wines 322 Henderson Valley Road 3683 n/a Dwelling 56 Mountain Road 3645 n/a Stoneways historic building Auckland Centennial Park-Walker Road 16285 n/a Kauri grove 85 Opanuku Road 12898 333 Pit terraces 417 Henderson Valley Road 8060 n/a Pits 411 Henderson Valley Road 7512 n/a Terrace 310 Henderson Valley Road 8553 n/a Pits 318 Henderson Valley Road 7520 n/a Tree 331 Henderson Valley Road 2206 n/a Tree 319 Henderson Valley Road 2199 n/a

Goodfellow House Auckland Centennial Park- Mountain Road 14085 n/a

Pitsaw pit Auckland Centennial Park- Mountain Road 1574 n/a

Tree 381 Henderson Valley Road n/a 1014

Henderson Valley/Opanuku Local Area Plan Background … · Henderson Valley Landscape Assessment...

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