Ministry of Transport Files - Thames Coast

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.

54/2/275: Slipway Te Puru Boat Club 1966. Club built boat ramp 1967. This club development is another indication of the increase in personal wealth and development along the Thames Coast. No environmental information. 54/2/496: Boat ramp Thames Coast at Kereta. Set of photographs show little of the Thames coast. 54/4/480: Realignment sea wall protection SH 25 Thames Coast 1984. File covers two series of seawall construction along the Thames coast to slightly widen and ease some of the corners on SH 25. Photographs of each site included in the application. 54/14/6: Shell removal Thames coast 1972. Application to remove 200 yd3 from Taramira Point as this material was blocking the stream. Franklin County file 6/1/360. No outcome given. Franklin County was opposed to removal because of the history of past erosion. 54/14/7/52: Sand and Shingle Kereta, Thames 1976. File contains 3 black and white photographs, poor quality. Shingle brought down by the Otakaeo Stream formed into a spit and directed stream north. This caused erosion of the picnic area used by the members of the Kereta Boat Club. MOT recommended a one-off 25 m3 removal operation to redirect the stream straight out to sea. This beach was also used as a source of shingle by the MWD. 54/14/24: Control of foreshore Thames County Council 1921. Commences with Thames County Council requesting control of Penny’s Bay and Cemetery Bay Tapu, to control the amount of shingle being removed. Main reason was to protect the road. It was thought that too much extraction would lead to erosion of the road. Marine dept file M4/150. 54/14/70: Control of foreshores, Thames Coromandel District Council volume 1 1980 1984. No environmental information. Volume 3 - 1984. No environmental information. 54/15/40: Removal of material Firth of Thames 1925. A local contractor was taking material from the beach from the bridge at Waiomu to the Thames Harbour Board Boundary for road repairs. The amount was about 300 yds3 and was unlicensed. Marine Dept suggested that since the work was for Thames County they should apply for the permit and pay the royalties. May 1915 there was an application by the Waihi-Paeroa Gold Extraction Company to take 50 yds3 of hand-selected shingle from Orere Beach as trial grinders because of the difficulty of getting flint from France during the war. Royalty 6d (5c) / yd. 1938 the Thames Borough Council prohibited taking shingle from within the Port of Thames. This area had been used by locals and farmers as a source of material for many years. 1941 there were a number of operators taking shingle from the beaches between Tararu and Te Puru. Shingle was being taken from above and below the high water mark. MWD report notes that there were vast numbers of cockles killed in the 1950s. Cause unknown. Associated files MoT 12/48/1, Marine dept M4/2683, (1948,49), PWD Auckland 12/243. 54/27/217: Sub aqueous cable Thames, Te Puru Tapu. Nothing further. 54/44/671: Marine Farming, Oahuru Bay Firth of Thames 1982 MAF 7/6/32. All the objectors were from out of the area. 43/64/6: Land endowments, purchase and reclamations, Thames Volume 2 1972. Reclaimed south of Hape Stream 1973. Nothing of environmental use. Describes reclamation. 54/16/337: Waipatukahu Stream Tapu. The school wanted to make use of an area of land which had been part of Tapu creek for extra playground. Volume 1 is the same as above and continues the story. MoT declared the land was an illegal reclamation. Local interest groups including the School Committee, Domain Board, Motor Camp Proprietor and TCDC had a meeting to sort out use of the land. Camp had use in the holidays and the school during term time. Education Board were asked to respect the locals wishes but MoT gifted the land to the school anyway 1985. 54/2/182: Boat Ramp Tapu 1963. MWD report on the site suggested the possibility of erosion helped by ramp when SW winds occur. Storm of June 1974 caused the ramp to break in two places. The lower part of the ramp was moved south about 3 feet (0.9 m). Seems that the club folded after this storm. 54/14/99: Control and endowment of foreshores Hauraki Plains District Council 1981. No environmental information. 54/2/202: Boat ramp Waiomu Boat Club 1961. Applied for a boat ramp 1961. This license was revoked shortly afterwards, so the ramp became a public ramp owned by the club. By 1966 usage was high but it was difficult to get boats ashore in rough conditions (NW or SW chop). The club applied for a permit for a breakwater. Resident Engineer Paeroa MWD agreed one or possibly two breakwaters needed. Cost $5,000-$6,000. Between 1966 and 1970 a groyne on the SW side was partially built. North of the ramp a rubble wall was built from beach stone which provided good shelter in moderate conditions but failed under storm conditions. Stones scattered over ramp by storms. No environmental information or reports of any investigations done before construction was undertaken.

Thames coast from Tararu to Kereta

1960 to 1984 with references to earlier reports.

Frequency of collection: 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. Completeness: Many files and pieces of information from the files are missing. Many engineer's reports are missing from the files held by Environment Waikato.

Physical files Digital Format: n/a

Historical information about activities in the area.

Available from 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. Slipways Slipway installation commenced from the earliest of settlements because most of the early communities were serviced by boat and needed repair and maintenance facilities locally. There were also some slipways constructed by local boating and sailing clubs. Boat Clubs. There seems to have been an upsurge of boat clubs in the late 1960s early 1970s but by the end of the decade wanted to transfer their ramp assets to the local county. Falling membership could not sustain the costs of licenses and maintenance for buildings and ramps. 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.