Ministry of Transport Files - Whiritoa

These files from the Ministry of Transport deal mainly with the administrative aspects of structures, reclamations, power, telephone, and pipeline crossings of waterways around the marine foreshore and in navigable rivers and lakes. There is not a lot of environmental information in these files but occasionally there is a copy of a report that deals with the environmental aspects of a structure. In about 1964 the Ministry of Transport (MOT) took over the role of licensing structures on the foreshore from the Marine Department (MD) and employed the Ministry of Works and Development (MWD) as its environmental advisers. Reports from the MWD therefore contain much of the environmental information available in these files. Purpose: This dataset provides a brief discussion of coastal information contained within historical Ministry of Transport files, collected during a review commissioned by Environment Waikato as part of the Coastal Database project. The Ministry of Transport (MoT) was responsible for the administration of structures in the CMA and in navigable rivers and lakes from 1964 to 1997. These files are now held in Environment Waikato’s archives. These files contain useful information on the history and legal status of existing coastal structures.

54/14/7/57: Sand and Shingle Removal 1976. File records a complaint that for several years Provincial Transport Paeroa had been extracting sand from Maori land at the southern end of Whiritoa Beach. A lack of storms forced extractors to move onto the beach to continue supplies. Extraction was thought to be about 150 m3 per week. A campaign lead by a resident Mr Lovett of Kontiki Road apposed the sand mining, though some residents were using a front end loader to gain their own supply of sand for building. The volume of material taken this way is unknown (photo on file showing one hole on beach from loader). At least some of the money earned from the sand mined from the Maori land went to building the Surf Club. Whiritoa Erosion Group (WEG) was established in 1978. Winter storms of 1978 eroded the dunes at both ends of the beach beside the lagoons. Those apposed to mining argued that the beach is a closed sand system and that the mining was reducing the amount of sand on the beach and dunes. Records indicate the Auckland Star ran an article on the subject of sand licenses in July 1979. In June 1979, the Commission for the Environment was requested to intervene. The commission was out of touch with the issue and recommended licensing by the MoT, but the area was above MHWS and therefore out of the jurisdiction of the MoT. McLean’s 1979 report on the sands in the nearshore at Whiritoa indicated that there was a possibility that the beach was a closed system. Report included in file. MWD conducted a study of historic coastline positions and found that the coast has prograded about 40 m between 1896 and 1975, even with sand mining taking place. Two sets of photos taken 1981 show beach condition. Two of the photos show the effects of drain coming out onto the beach. A letter was written to MP David Lange by local resident Mr Cummings, asking him to intervene. A report by Hauraki Catchment Board says they would have prevented the subdivision had they known about it because of the presence of the Ramarama stream. The migration of the stream mouth from time to time (unrelated to sand mining) could undercut the dunes and undermine Mr Cummings house. There is a note here that Hauraki Catchment Board paid for a set of offshore sediment samples to be collected by Paul Dell to be part of a PhD study into offshore sediment transport. This thesis was paid for by public funds through the Water and Soil Division of the Ministry of Works and Development. The thesis was subsequently sold to a mineral company and the data embargoed. 54/15/48: Removal of material, Coromandel Vol 2 1973-1981. The file covers a number of beaches. Much of the material on this file is also on the site specific files. Set of six photographs showing the mining area at Whiritoa. File also has a copy of the agreement between the extractor and the Maori Trustee for sand extraction at Whiritoa. The Maori Trustee was unwilling to effect a closure because of the loss of income. There is a note from the MWD Paeroa listing the streams that have a good supply of gravel for roading. This note includes the length of channel in each stream that could be mined. There is a copy of Mc Lean’s report on Whiritoa in this file. 54/14/8/19: Sand removal Whangamata 1955. This file deals with sand removal commences with a letter from the Whangarei Tow Boat Company requesting permission to mine sand for sand blasting purposed from three beaches: Orakau (Orokawa?) Omunga (Homunga?) and Wheratora (Whiritoa?) in 1965. MoT requested a report, but this is not in the file. Sites were only accessible by boat or aircraft. Company agreed to ferry some MWD staff to the beaches to carry out the inspections. The file finished with a note to say that MWD is to do a survey but there is nothing about a report being filed.

Whiritoa Beach and adjacent estuaries.

1960 to 1984 with information on earlier conditions.

Infrequent/irregular.

Only includes information available on specific files. Important to note that Ministry of Works files contain further environmental information relating to these files. Many files and pieces of information from the files are missing. Many engineer's reports are missing from the files held by Environment Waikato.Additional information about the southern estuary can be found in decisions of the Maori Land Court.

Physical files. Digital Format: .pdf of some files available on request.

Files are freely available from Environment Waikato archives. No confidentiality, public information.

Files closed. Include a note where this record continues after end date of file where possible – e.g. Dept of Conservation files. These files have been continued where appropriate but have been amalgamated and given a new file number by DOC making sourcing more recent information difficult.

Sand and Shingle Mining. The winning of aggregate from the foreshore is noticeable as an early occupation of coastal freighters, particularly scows. Beach sediments did not need crushing for the most part and were therefore in high demand as cheap roading material, especially for the growing Auckland market. Where shingle was not readily available, shell material was used for a road surfacing material. Most of the files stored at Environment Waikato start in the 1960s or later and refer to earlier files about the same beaches. Therefore in Archives in either Auckland or Wellington there are probably earlier files outlining activities prior to 1960. There is also a reference to a previous ban on sand mining along the west coast of the Coromandel prior to 1960. This may refer to changes that were enacted after the Rabone Report of 1950. The sand mining applications also highlight the importance of coastal traffic right up to the 1960s and 1970s. Fertiliser was shipped to Whitianga wharf from Auckland and Tauranga and scows took a back load of sand from Whangapoua Harbour entrance to Auckland to lower their costs. Mining licences were also pursued at other beaches such as Otama so that scows could load under differing wind and wave conditions. Related information: All these files are related to Ministry of Works and Development files as the MWD was the adviser to MOT.