Whanganui rowing clubs call on district council to improve river access

The access and enhancement project would stretch 1km upriver, starting at the Aramoho Rail Bridge. Photo / Bevan Conley

An Aramoho rowing group wants to enhance stretches of the Whanganui River bank it calls “an eyesore for the city”.

However, the project could come with a price tag of $1.6 million.

Group member Bruce Osborne, from the Whanganui Rowing Association, said Whanganui had some of the best training water in New Zealand but the worst amenities “in terms of getting access to the river”.

The group wants improvements along both banks, stretching for around 1km from the Aramoho Rail Bridge upriver.

Osborne told a Whanganui District Council aspirations and performance committee the embankment near the Aramoho-Whanganui Rowing Club was “quite a disgrace”.

“It’s weed-infested and it’s an eyesore for the city.

“The embankment had started to be terraced by volunteers many years ago but it‘s just simply an overgrown mess.”

Thirteen stakeholders were consulted with over the past two years and all had given their unanimous support to the project, he said.

The council is working on a shared pathway from the drop-out repair site opposite the Aramoho Shopping Centre to the Dublin Street Bridge.

It should be finished by the end of November.

Osborne said the pathway would eventually continue to the end of the rower’s camp - at the Tutaeika stream - but there had been little consultation with rowing clubs about how it would affect their operations.

Project delivery would be spread over three stages.

The group’s submission to the committee says it would work with the council on the shared pathway initiative to make sure “all infrastructural items are considered” before concrete went down.

The establishment of floating boat launching pontoons (on the Aramoho side of the river) would be next, followed by public toilets, beautification and inanga spawning habitat, an enhanced parking area and water hydrants for post-flood clean-ups.

A design concept and engineering analysis are estimated to cost $100,000, with the rest costing $1.5 million.

Funding for the project would fall on the council, with the possibility of attracting money from other regions and organisations.

Osborne said the clubs had to run their own operations

“For the Aramoho-Whanganui sheds, we had the first turnover of $200,000 to run our sheds last year. It’s all volunteer-run.”

He said a custom-built groyne was also being proposed, to deflect debris from the river away from the pontoons.

“We think water-based sporting venues, particularly public river access, have deteriorated in recent years.

“It’s been due to underinvestment, really.”

He wanted the council to take a proactive lead role in investment and leadership of the project over the next one to five years,” Osborne said.

Deputy mayor Helen Craig said she was worried about erosion on that section of the riverbank.

“Everything you do there is at risk until you can somehow provide protection to that bank.

“There are a lot of moving parts we need to get our heads around. None of that is cheap.”

Osborne said he thought it was “a given” that the district and regional councils would fix those issues.

Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.