Hauraki-Coromandel Post closure: Former editor pays tribute to community newspaper

Politicians mixed with Thames-Coromandel District Council staff, contractors and stake holders at the bridge walkover on December 15, 2023. Photo / Jim Birchall

It is with sadness that I read about the closure of the Hauraki-Coromandel Post.

Traditional print media at the community level is fuelled by the goodwill and advertising expenditure of the wonderful people who run local businesses.

I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to be editor of the HC Post in late 2022.

Soon after arriving in the Coromandel Peninsula from Auckland, I covered a significant weather event that caused the destruction of a section of State Highway 25A.

The closure caused traffic to be rerouted to the vast reaches of the peninsula for the best part of the following year.

The impact of the road closure cannot be understated, and the fiscal damage on the local community already reeling from a post-Covid hangover led many to opine just what they had done to deserve such ill fortune.

SH25A suffered significant damage. Photo / Jim Birchall

Some locals forwarded their plans to bring in machinery and get the work done before the estimated deadline, and public pressure no doubt played a part in NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi’s expediency when the new Taparahi bridge was completed in record time, opening to traffic just before Christmas 2023.

Other memorable stories included the tale of Paeroa’s Mikkelsen gallery, which rose like a phoenix after a fire.

Long-serving Whangamatā general practitioner Dr Michael Miller received a QSM and Thames man Lance Bombardier Jake O’Hara was honoured as the New Zealand Army Soldier of the Year.

As is the case with life, the news was not always happy.

Former Hauraki-Coromandel Post editor Jim Birchall.

In September 2023, I covered the story of a search near Whangamatā for the remains of murdered Swedish backpacker Heidi Paarkkonen with podcaster Ryan Wolf.

Jordan Van Deursen went missing around Wentworth Falls in October of the same year and is yet to be found. In an interesting coda, his beloved dog Bagho was found safe and well some two months later.

Despite the inevitable ups and downs that come with being a journalist, my time in the hot seat was made enjoyable by the good people I met and the privilege of sharing their stories.

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