Brian Rudman: Feeble protectors leave cone to despoilers

When it comes to the four-legged threats to New Zealand's natural heritage, the Department of Conservation fights back with steel traps, 1080-poison bombing raids and total faith in the rectitude of the cause.

It's a different story when the enemy is Transit New Zealand bulldozers. Then it's a case of rolling over and waving the white flag. That's as far as Mt Roskill is concerned anyway.

Just a month or so before the fate of Mt Roskill's northern slopes is to go before the Environment Court, DoC and its sidekick, the Auckland Conservation Board, have withdrawn their separate appeals against plans to drive a six-lane sunken highway through the volcanic cone's foothills.

Warwick Murray, DoC community relations manager, says, "We didn't feel we had, at the end of the day, a sufficiently strong case."

Luckily, the Auckland Volcanic Cones Society is made of sterner stuff and is continuing the battle. But the withdrawal of the two conservation bodies is a bitter blow, not just for Mt Roskill, but for the idea that Auckland's unique volcanic cones are safe from the despoilers.

In just over a year Mt Roskill's four official guardians - the Auckland City Council, Auckland Regional Council, DoC and the conservation board have all caved in - the first three with hardly a whimper. This despite them all being bound by high-and-mighty-worded commitments to preserving the region's unique environment.

The first moves towards a comprehensive conservation policy for the cones began in the early 1970s, when 300-odd local bodies drew up the first rules to protect our volcanic heritage. At that stage only 35 cones remained of the 63 the first European settlers recorded back in the 1840s. And of the survivors, many bore the scars of the road-metal miners.

In a letter dated April 26, 2000, the present chairperson of the Auckland Regional Council, Gwen Bull, gave a stirring defence of Mt Roskill and the other cones. She was then chairperson of the council's strategic development committee and was giving Transit NZ's senior transportation engineer, John Raines, a painful flea in the ear. She noted Mt Roskill was listed as "a natural heritage area of regional significance" by the regional council; a site of "natural significance" by DoC and a "significant geological and archeological feature" in the Auckland City Council district plan.

"Auckland's volcanic cones are unique and are of national importance. The past destruction of many volcanic cones and the modification of all but one of the remaining ones, heightens the need for strong protection practices. These need to encompass visual as well as physical protection."

Noting that Mt Roskill had been compromised in the past, she said past modifications "have increased the significance of the remnant areas.

"It is considered that Transit's latest proposed motorway alignment does not ensure the complete physical protection of the Mt Roskill cone and falls far short of its visual protection.

"It is considered that the visual integrity of Auckland's volcanic cones requires the retention of open space wherever this still occurs at the base of, or surrounding, the cones."

These were fine words, but when it came to the crunch, the ARC decided that building roads was more important than all the fancy sentiment about our heritage and bowed to the bulldozers.

DoC was almost as bad, weakly suggesting but a few minor compromises to Transit NZ's plans. Ironically, this was at a time when DoC was revealing grand plans to gain National Reserve status and eventually World Heritage status for the Auckland cones. Mt Roskill, it seems, excepted.

With the ARC, DoC and Auckland City submission all wimping out, the Auckland City Council planning commissioners hearing the case in May last year followed the lead and gave Transit the green light to cut the highway into the north face of the mountain, which will result in a sheer, 11.5m retaining wall. This wall will be between a quarter and a fifth the height of the mountain at that point and have a dramatic physical and visual impact.

DoC was finally embarrassed into appealing, but because its initial objections had been so minor it was left with few grounds to fight on. The conservation board and the Volcanic Cones Society had been more staunch, demanding the roadway be routed further north, away from the mountain. Both gave notice of appeal on these grounds.

Since then the appellants have had numerous mediation meetings with Transit but to little avail. Transit has refused to budge, except on a few cosmetic matters. I'm not sure why the board finally dropped its objections, but it has. The Environment Court hearing begins on June 24. The Volcanic Cones Society plans to be there.

DoC's Warwick Murray says they dropped out because "our fundamental concern is the mountain and when you look at the proposal we're really satisfied that the physical impact on the mountain will be minimal".

These words are hard to reconcile with what former Auckland DoC boss Dr Graeme Campbell told the Auckland city commissioners just a year before. The highway, he said, would result in "destruction of a significant portion of the northern flank of the volcano".

Looking at the wider picture, he said this would be "one further cut in a litany of cuts" that over the past 150 years had destroyed nearly half the region's cones.

His message was that it was time to say no more. He is right, as was Mrs Bull, in her letter of April 2000. The nibbling and butchering of these unique treasures must stop. Now.