An exercise in frustration

The wood-fired locomotive Seymour playing its part in 2018's celebration of 150 years of rail in Kawakawa. Picture /Peter de Graaf

Ask Bay of Islands Vintage Railway funding manager Frank Leadley to name the most frustrating thing he has ever undertaken, and he will not hesitate.

"Our attempts to get funding for the extension of the railway to Ōpua, (steam engine) Gabriel's boiler and associated projects would have to be top of the list," he said.

The trust had formed a company, Northland Adventure Experience (NAX) Ltd., to obtain and administer funding from the Provincial Growth Fund, with directors John Carter, John Law, Murray McCully, Rowena Tana, Pita Tipene and Mr Leadley (chairman). The trust holds 51 per cent of the company, the Far North District Council 25 per cent and the Cycleway Trust 24 per cent.

A funding application was lodged in July last year for a project including restoration of the railway to Ōpua, Gabriel's replacement boiler, repositioning a permanent cycleway within the railway corridor, significant building and rolling stock developments at Kawakawa, completing the restoration of the historic steamship Minerva, a new railway station/transport hub with a wide range of components at the Colenso Triangle in
Ōpua, a job-training programme, particularly for the railway and Minerva, and an art trail along the railway/cycleway.

"Once the project is completed we would have been in a position to offer up to 25 jobs to local people, and be a major local employer," Mr Leadley said.

"It was an excellent and highly detailed application, and we had great hopes for it, as it met a wide number of significant needs for the region. It was accompanied by 12 very strong letters of support from community organisations and groups, but after more than four months of waiting, with not a single query from the PGF, it was turned down in December without a cent.

"It seems it was a political decision, with the application turned down by some MPs deciding Northland had had enough funding support. It was a devastating blow."

However, NAX had decided that the project was far too important to give up on, so had retained all the components, but broken it down into "chunks," with the Kawakawa buildings, Gabriel's boiler and rolling stock, railway line restoration and Minerva components being the subject of a revised application to the PGF, the Far North District Council funding the design, construction and administration costs for the cycleway, Far North Holdings and/or others funding the Ōpua station development, and Ngāti Hine/KiwiRail taking responsibility for the job training component.

"The total cost for all components is nearly $16 million, a little more than the first application but retaining all the significant elements," Mr Leadley added.

"This revised application was sent off at the end of March, after BOIVR had a meeting with a PGF representative, and received strong signals that by breaking the project up in this way, showing the levels of community support from our partners, we had a good chance of success this time, and we could possibly hear a result by the end of April, but now we have the coronavirus pandemic.

"What effects that will have on meetings to determine PGF funding, and the level of funding that will be available, are impossible to predict, but it may not be good. We have done all we can, and now we just have to endure another anxious wait."

wever, NAX had decided that the project was far too important to give up on, so had retained all the components, but broken it down into "chunks," with the Kawakawa buildings, Gabriel's boiler and rolling stock, railway line restoration and Minerva components being the subject of a revised application to the PGF, the Far North District Council funding the design, construction and administration costs for the cycleway, Far North Holdings and/or funding the Ōpua station development, and Ngāti Hine/KiwiRail taking responsibility for the job training component.

"The total cost for all components is nearly $16 million, a little more than the first application but retaining all the significant elements," Mr Leadley added.

"This revised application was sent off at the end of March, after BOIVR had a meeting with a PGF representative, and received strong signals that by breaking the project up in this way, showing the levels of community support from our partners, we had a good chance of success this time, and we could possibly hear a result by the end of April, but now we have the coronavirus pandemic.

"What effects that will have on meetings to determine PGF funding, and the level of funding that will be available, are impossible to predict, but it may not be good. We have done all we can, and now we just have to endure another anxious wait."