AH Reed Memorial Kauri Park in Whangārei, praised for its beauty and urban access to large kauri, is now closed due to kauri dieback. Photo / NZME
AH Reed Memorial Kauri Park in Whangārei, praised for its beauty and urban access to large kauri, is now closed due to kauri dieback. Photo / NZME
Northland Regional Council is investigating what went wrong after a positive test result for kauri dieback disease was not shared for more than a year.
Whangārei District Council swung into action when it was told, on April 15, that a tree in its AH Reed Memorial Kauri Park had thepathogen which causes kauri dieback.
It engaged iwi/hapū, the regional council, key stakeholders and other experts, who all agreed to close the park for three months to help stop disease spread.
More tests will be conducted in the park to see if the fungus-like pathogen which causes dieback, Phytophthora agathidicida, was more widespread.
However, while action was swift and decisive once the test result was known, the Northland Regional Council (NRC) admitted there was a “significant” time delay between initial test results and formal notification.
At the time, there was limited confidence in the result and further laboratory testing was commissioned on the same samples for greater certainty.
More testing completed in November 2025 again confirmed the presence of the pathogen, with these results not shared with Whangārei District Council until this month.
AH Reed Memorial Kauri Park in Whangārei, praised for its beauty and urban access to large kauri, is now closed due to kauri dieback. Photo / NZME
NRC will take steps to strengthen internal processes to ensure survey results were “clearly understood, appropriately escalated and acted on in a timely manner” to prevent a similar delay, it said.
NRC deputy chairman Jack Craw, who previously worked on kauri dieback prevention in Auckland and Northland, said the result from December 2024 should have been shared.
While staff acknowledged they had made a mistake, NRC was trying to work out what went wrong and why, he said.
“It’s something that we don’t want to repeat ... It’s a high priority that NRC is trying to get to the bottom of immediately.”
Craw said it was impossible to know the risk of disease spread between the first positive test in December 2024 and the park being closed this month.
Northland Regional Council deputy chairman Jack Craw says it is impossible to know the risk of disease spread due to the delay in sharing the kauri dieback positive test result. Photo / NZME
However, he said it was good news the tree did not have symptoms and the bush was in good health, with a good layer of humus potentially protecting the tree’s roots from the pathogen.
Craw said some kauri dieback treatments had shown signs of success, including injecting phosphite into the tree trunk and traditional rongoā Māori treatments using native plants.
Craw said AH Reed Memorial Kauri Park was a beautiful park, popular with tourists and locals alike, and he was pleased decisive action had been taken to close it.
The park also formed part of the Hātea walkway.
However, the closure of a swing bridge earlier this year meant the walkway to Whangārei Falls couldn’t be used, he said.
Signs of kauri dieback - as seen in this tree in Auckland's Waitakere Ranges - include leaf fall and dead branches. The tree in AH Reed Memorial Kauri Park is not showing any symptoms. Photo / NZME
Whangārei District Council Māori Ward representative Deborah Harding said news of the kauri dieback pathogen being detected in AH Reed evoked a sense of dread.
But it was positive news the pathogen had only been found in one spot and the tree was not showing symptoms, she said.
Harding said the park’s closure was the urgent focus of the meeting, with the delay in the test results likely to be looked at later.
“There will be more korero around the what ifs. We hope there is no detrimental effects from the delay.”
Denise Piper is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on health and business. She has more than 20 years in journalism and is passionate about covering stories that make a difference.
