WORKING TOWARDS A BETTER FUTURE FOR GREATER ONEHUNGA
Onehunga Bay with its hard sandy beach was where Maori would bring their waka ashore to supply the early settlers with vegetables, meat and firewood from the outer parts of the Manukau Harbour. Today this is under the SH20 as it passes across Onehunga Bay.
Onehunga also enjoyed strong links with communities around the Manukau Harbour. Regular ferry services from the Onehunga Wharf were very important, especially for outlying districts such as Waiuku.
In 1950 pollution in the upper Manukau was a significant problem. Some 18 trade waste sewers discharged untreated waste into the harbour along the northern coast alone, together with untreated urban sewage effluent at several points and addiional effluent from process operations. Discharges to the Mangere inlet resulted in severe ecological damage. The international panel convened by the Drainage Board in 1954 reported that beaches from French Bay and probably Titirangi Bay to the Mangere Inlet were heavily polluted owing mainly to sewage outfalls. In 1955 a Noxious Fumes Inquiry identified that pollution of the Manukau and its impacts on the harbour mud flats was the source of “dangerous” fumes in the Mangere Inlet. These were severe enough to “blacken the paint work of neighbouring houses.” In 1956 immediately prior to the construction of Mangere treatment plant, 25 million litres of trade waste and 675,000 litres of untreated sewage were discharged daily into the Mangere Inlet.
Today TOES and the Manukau Harbour Restoration Society are committed to improving the condition of the harbour and its environs.
Exerpt from Auckland Council website
The Onehunga coast was dramatically modified as Auckland grew, and the coastal esplanade at Onehunga Bay became a pathway for critical infrastructure such as power, gas, water and telecommunications lines.
In 1975 the Ministry of Works extended the Mount Roskill to Wiri motorway across Onehunga Bay. This work involved the construction of what is now known as SH20, a lane called Orpheus Drive, and the creation of the lagoon.
At that time, a schematic drawing illustrating what future development on the seaward side of the motorway might resemble showed reclaimed land, with open space and pedestrian connections to the foreshore.
For decades the Onehunga community advocated for that vision to be realised. These aspirations were progressed when the New Zealand Transport Agency was preparing to build the second motorway bridge between Onehunga and Mangere.
The Transport Agency assisted the community to develop its vision for the foreshore, and in 2009 the restoration project was adopted by the former Auckland City Council
When Auckland Council was formed, the Maungakiekie-Tamaki Local Board assumed responsibility for the project and identified it as a priority in its Local Board Plan
This loss of amenity and space was one of the major complaints of local groups during negotiations over further motorway widening connected to the Mangere Bridge duplication. Proponents of a restored beach eventually won a $18 million commitment from Transit New Zealand (now New Zealand Transport Agency), which was topped up by a further $10 million from Auckland City Council. The sum was to fund a large-scale new shoreline west of the motorway, connected to downtown Onehunga with new pedestrian/cyclebridges, and creating 11ha of new beach and headland landscape.
The Onehunga Enhancement Society are still advocating for greater Onehunga, by working towards a pylon and transmission line free Onehunga Bay, a sensible outcome for the new East West Link and to reinvigorate the Onehunga Wharf for the community with ferries, cafes, live fish market and maritime museum.
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