Kaitāia flood protection upgrade: Awanui scheme credited with saving town

Minister Shane Jones, his mother Lillian Ruth Jones, NRC chair Pita Tipene, councillors from NRC and FNDC, and NRC rivers staff mark a milestone in the Awanui Flood Mitigation Project with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and celebration.

Decades after Kaitāia’s devastating 1958 flood, major work aimed at preventing history from repeating is finally paying off.

Ongoing work on the multimillion-dollar Awanui flood scheme is offering much greater flood protection to Kaitāia and Awanui, helping to safeguard lives and millions in property, the Northland Regional Council said.

Speaking to attendees at an event in Kaitāia to celebrate progress on the scheme to date, council chair Pita Tipene paid tribute to those who had helped make the $15 million-plus, multi-year project a success.

“This scheme would not be the success it is without the work and support of previous and current councillors, the many members of the Awanui River Management Liaison Group – including our tangata whenua partners – some dedicated contractors and of course some very generous funding from Central Government.”

Minister for Regional Development Shane Jones – who also spoke at the event – was thanked for his role in facilitating $11.1m of support for the project, which has significantly reduced the amount the local community has had to pay directly.

“This project is a great example of what can happen when the central and regional government and our communities work together for the greater good,” Tipene said.

He said the council had assumed responsibility for the scheme 20 years ago and work on the upgrade had begun in earnest with the adoption of the council’s Long Term Plan in 2018.

Work that had been carried out to date included 6km of stopbanks, 5km of benching, 2.2km of spillways, 1.2km of scour protection, 200m of timber floodwalls, 750,000cu m of earthworks, 15,000cu m of rock stabilisation, the replacement or upgrading of 24 floodgates and more recently, the installation of an extra span at the Quarry Rd bridge.

While there was still $2.5m more work planned over the next two years to remove a weak point from the scheme on the Lower Whangatane Spillway at Kumi Rd near Awanui, the work to date was already paying dividends.

Tipene said during a catastrophic flood of 1958, floodwaters more than a metre deep had inundated Kaitāia.

During that flood, the Awanui River was flowing at 220cu m a second. During a storm in mid-2022 the area had seen up to 320cu m a second flowing down the river – roughly 45% more water – but there had been no flooding in Kaitāia.

“The scheme performed well, as designed, potentially saved lives and essentially spared Kaitāia from millions of dollars’ worth of potential damage.”

Jones said it was important to recognise those in the community who represented landowners around Awanui.

“It’s important that community leaders are not smudged out of political funding stories. I grew up in Awanui and our flood scheme is the oldest in Tai Tokerau. The health of the harbour, our reliance on fishing, means that those who stepped forward on behalf of the community deserve enormous praise.”

He mentioned long-time resident Fiona King and commended her for “tirelessly representing” landowners.

“I would encourage other leaders to look at Fiona King as an example of what you can achieve.”

The Northland Age reached out to King for comment, but she had not responded by deadline.