Ministry of Transport Files - Cooks Beach

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.

54/4/356: Reclamation, Causeway and Canal, Cooks Beach 1973. Owner wanted to build a causeway to allow access to his property on the east side of the Purangi estuary. No environmental information. 54/13/2: Erosion at Coromandel. Cooks Beach erosion 1979. This part of the file is mainly about the rules set out by TCDC for shore protection along the beach. 54/16/297: Reclamation Purangi River 1978. TCDC file Q20/93/3. TCDC requested to enlarge the old tip off the Purangi Road that was used as the Cooks Beach Rubbish dump. MoT and locals objected as the top of the estuary was a bird nesting and fish spawning area and there were shellfish beds down stream. The bund around the tip had not been maintained and water flowed into the rubbish at high tide. MoT had a policy at the time to not allow rubbish dumps in tidal waters. After a hearing, it was decided that TCDC had two years to find and develop a new site. Once this decision was made, TCDC stopped developing the new tip and reverted to the old. Following more complaints the tip was closed permanently in 1986. 54/27/3: Aerial Wires Purangi River. Upgrading power cables across river. 54/27/14: Cables. Replacing Submarine Cable Whitianga, 1969. The end of this file deals with a river crossing at the western end of Cooks Beach. 54/27/210: Telephone Lines Cooks Beach Purangi estuary entrance 1982. File contains two half tone photographs showing the eastern end of Cooks Beach. The cable was eventually laid underwater. 54/44/653: Marine Farms, Johnston, Cooks Bay 1982. Declined. 54/49: Marine Farms, Johnston, Cooks Beach, declined. 54/1/592: Boat Ramp Cooks Beach Purangi Reserve. TCDC file V8. Original boat ramp and road access to allow locals to get to boats to cross the river. Rocks in channel causing problems for visitors by 1978. By 1981 consideration was given to blasting rocks. File V*/92 of 30 Sept. 1982 has TCDC proposal for a concrete ramp at estuary. MWD 13/108. 54/2/39: Jetty Purangi estuary. This jetty on the east side of the estuary was installed in the 1940s but was removed in 1971. Jetty was made of stone. 54/2/256: Reclamation Purangi Estuary 1971. Local rubbish dump on the edge of Purangi Road deemed reclamation by MOT as the rubbish was below the high water mark. TCDC file Q20/93/3. Tip finally closed 1986. Photographs showing rubbish dumped by residents even though the tip was closed. 54/24/86/26: Cables Purangi estuary 1969. Wire telephone cable across estuary no details. MWD Paeroa file 7/21, 7/1 54/24/86/66: Cables Purangi River 1975. No details. 54/27/263: Power line crossing Purangi estuary 1985. Nothing new. 54/17/8: Roads Coromandel Peninsula, volume 1 1930. 1952 Cooks Beach stream crossing to get to the beach development.

Cooks Beach and the adjacent Purangi estuary.

1960 to 1984

Frequency of collection: Infrequent/irregular

Gaps in collection: Many files and pieces of information from the files are missing. Many engineer's reports are missing from the files held by Environment Waikato. Completeness: Only includes information available on specific files. Important to note that Ministry of Works files contain further environmental information relating to these files.

Physical files Digital Format: n/a

Historical information about activities and consents in the area.

Freely available in EW archives Sensitivity/Confidentiality: 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.

Additional comments: By-law Development and the County Councils Control of the foreshore, lakeshore and riverbeds was vested in the Marine Department (MD) and then later in the Ministry of Transport (MOT). As roads improved access to the coast and lakes increased and the MOT vested its powers in the local County Councils to enable them to create by laws to control the use of these areas while the MOT retained overall control and was responsible for vetting any proposed by law. Jetties and Wharves There were two types of jetties and wharves; those built for catching Whitebait, and the fishing boat jetty. As the local fishing industry developed, there was a steady increase in requests for licenses for jetties to load and unload fishing boats. Records in the files indicate that there was either a shortage of hardwood for jetty piles or the locals preferred to rely on piles made from Manuka or Kanuka. This is especially noticeable of the piles used for fishing boat jetties. As the fishing fleet grew so did the demand for fish processing facilities on shore. The increased number of requests for jetties for commercial fishing probably reflects the increased government investment in the fishing industry in the 1960s and 1970s. Boat ramps These appear associated with two activities. Commercial fishing or the storage of a boat used occasionally. As roads improved and boat-building materials became lighter the trailed boat became more popular. This in turn put pressure on local County Councils to either build boat ramps or license boat ramps to be built by for fishing or Boat clubs to access the water. After a burst of activity in the 1960s and 1970s many clubs were wound up leaving the structure the responsibility of the local Council. Marine Farming The Marine Farming Act was passed in 1971 but it was only towards the end of the 1970s that marine farming began to be developed in the area around Coromandel Harbour. Early applications were met with strong resistance by Auckland boat users who thought that marine farms would interfere with their recreation along the Coromandel west coast, especially within Coromandel Harbour. As the development of marine farms became accepted there were fewer objections and the industry became well established. The Thames Coromandel District Council (TCDC) commissioned a study to determine sites suitable for marine farming. This report also indicated where marine farming should not take place and became the main planning document for further coastal development. Related information: All these files are related to Ministry of Works and Development files as the MWD was the adviser to MOT.These files contain references to reports etc supplied by other government departments and county offices. These should be approached for further details.