Devonport in Black and White

A few pictures of the village of Devonport....click on an image for an enlargement...

Port Plans Will Cut Views

This map shows part of the inner Waitemata Harbour. Devonport is to the North - and you can make out the Mt Victoria and North Head volcanic cones. You can also make out Queens Wharf and Princes Wharf - and more particularly the Port. The Waterfront Development Agency, with the support of Auckland Council, recommends that the Port be almost doubled in size...

The Auckland Council Master Plan, and the Auckland Waterfront Development Agency plans show a huge expansion of the Port through reclamation. If you don't support such huge expansion - then you need to put in a submission about this - if nothing else. Does it matter? Yes it does....

This picture is from the end of Queens Wharf looking out to the Harbour entrance. You can see Mt Victoria and North Head to the left. A signature view from Auckland's public waterfront.

The arrow indicates the view line from the end of Queens Wharf. Other view corridors in Auckland have protection in the Regional Policy Statement. Why is this view not protected? Because - for expedient reasons - neither Council nor Central Government (which own Queens Wharf) have sought a Plan Change for the new activities that now happen on Queens Wharf. So this great view is not protected in the public interest.

This image shows how that view will change after the reclamation. In fact it is likely to be even worse because Ports want to stack containers very high on their newly reclaimed land to cope with an almost doubling of container volumes. These volumes will cause serious congestion on surrounding streets also. Isn't about time there was some collaboration with Ports of Tauranga?

But it could get worse than containers. We had three cruise ships in for the semi-finals on Friday. Quite festive and fun if it only happens when there's a big event, and downtown parking and accommodation is at a premium...

The closer you get, the bigger they become...

You can see how the Pacific Dawn totally dominates Queens Wharf, and blocks the morning sunshine and public views. Shed 10 is almost lost alongside the ship - which isn't even the biggest ship to visit Auckland.

This is the Queen Mary II. (This is another of my computer models - all to scale). In fact Queen Mary II has never berthed alongside Queens Wharf because the ship is too long. That's why there are proposals to put a "dolphin" - a support structure off the end of Queens Wharf - to moor the ship. Docked there it will block views from Queens Wharf totally - without any help from Ports reclamation. If you want to protect Queens Wharf so it can be used as Queens Park (not a cruise ship park), then you need to put in a submission about that too.

Auckland Rail Blame Game (2)

I thought you'd like this crowd control system in Victoria, Australia. "....The officers and horses are equipped with riot gear to protect them from any indirect projectiles or attempted assaults, as well as reflective tape to aid visibility. Mounted police are often employed in crowd control because of their mobile mass and height advantage...."

Yesterday, Monday after Friday's rail chaos, there were a number of interviews which I thought I'd interpret. Read between the lines. Offer my perspective. I'll skip the ones in the morning because they were all a bit overheated.

But first of all, a story. When I was a North Shore City Councillor, I was also on Devonport Community Board. Devonport hosts a big event - The Devonport Food and Wine Festival. Every year the organisation that runs it - Devonport Rotary (to generate money for various good causes in the community) - comes to Devonport Community Board in support of its application to run the event on Windsor Park at the waterfront.

One year I remember, Devonport Rotary had been a bit too successful with its promotions of the event. It had sought permission for an event of about 20,000 people over two days. But what happened was the event - and Devonport - were basically overwhelmed because around 40,000 came to the party. The event organisers closed the barriers around their event - they had sufficient security for the event which was enclosed in a wire fence - so the rest spilled out into Devonport streets, squares and waterfront areas, and got quietly pissed in public. They did other things in public too. There was quite a public backlash. Devonport Rotary was called to account by the Community Board.... and when Devonport Rotary came along the next year to seek permission we were very keen to make sure they didn't overdo the promotion. In short we got involved in event management and crowd control.

(PostScript: Needed to add this bit on Wednesday morning after reading about McCully's takeover of Auckland's waterfront, after his gated party central on Queens Wharf got mobbed.

The equivalent in Devonport would have been for Rotary to annex Devonport's town centre!

McCully's Government is stepping way over the line here. And in who's interest? The International Rugby Board? The National Party election campaign? Because I don't think McCully's knee jerk actions are in Auckland's best interests. A rational national approach to the situation Auckland finds itself in, would be a partnership between the police and Auckland Council, the rapid development of a crowd management plan, and the managed redirection of crowds to existing alternative locations. The easiest would be to pedestrianise Queen Street from Quay Street to Aotea Square, and to relocate some attractions to Aotea Square. And an associated media campaign to direct crowds to different attractions at different destinations. A strong, but organised and directed police presence would be essential (not on horses). Crowd monitoring (helicopter or whatever) would provide info to a crowd control office. This info would be used to manage the police presence. Their job would be to firmly direct and redirect pedestrian movement. This would not dampen party spirits. It would give people confidence the event(s) would be safe to attend. Sending people onto Captain Cook Wharf at this late stage is not a good option.

I must confess a part of me secretly likes Government taking control of Captain Cook and the West edge of Bledisloe from the Port Company for Party Central. Just as I quite liked Govt stepping in to take Queens Wharf for that purpose. Next step? Cruise ship terminal on Bledisloe. Not on Queens Wharf....)

Back to Friday.

The first interview of interest that I heard yesterday was on National Radio with the CEO of Veolia Auckland. Graham Sibery I think. Interviewed by Mary Wilson in her usual combative, not really listening sort of way. But I was listening. It was interesting that the CEO of Veolia was the only person being interviewed on CheckPoint. Here's what I heard him say:

* we had an agreement with Auckland Transport to carry 15,000 fans to Eden Park for the game (from Newmarket and Britomart and presumably stations along the way)
* the stations are basically "unmanned"
* we had people climbing on the trains
* the rail system was basically overwhelmed

The interviewer wanted him to fall on his sword of course. She wasn't really listening, and she didn't know the organisational background and responsibilities that underpin Auckland Transport services.

But I have some idea.

Veolia has a service contract with Auckland Transport to operate and maintain the trains which are publicly owned. KiwiRail has a contract with Central Government to maintain the rail network. But it is Auckland Transport that has responsibility for operating and maintaining Auckland's railway and ferry stations. And Auckland Transport is answerable to Auckland Council.

There were two events on Friday night. Rugby at Eden Park and the Rugby World Cup festivities on the waterfront. Auckland event management and control is fundamentally the responsibility of Auckland Council - though this duty is discharged through a variety of boards and committees where other stakeholders are represented.

Auckland Council owns and is responsible for Auckland's streets and Auckland's ferry and railway stations.

So. Veolia has a contract with Auckland Transport to carry 15,000 people to see the rugby and attend the opening at Eden Park. I explained in yesterday's blog about this that Auckland's rail infrastructure carries about 3,600 passengers/hour/line at peak commute times. (Because it is a limited service today). I imagine then, that to carry 15,000 people to and from the game, Veolia will be relying on passengers tolerating crowded trains, and assuming it will meet its obligations by moving about 6,000 from Newmarket and Britomart respectively over a two hour period, and about 3,000 from the West. These numbers are informed but speculative. I haven't sighted the event services contract.

So now we come to the second significant interview of the evening. That's with Mayor Len Brown by Mark Sainsbury on CloseUp after TV One News. Len Brown apologised first up, and then appeared to blame everything on the fact that 200,000 people turned up at the Waterfront instead of the 120,000 he figured would come.

What was the transport plan for getting people to and from the waterfront? Veolia had contracted to get people to Eden Park. That's a fair question?

It is interesting that there doesn't appear to be any push from politicians to haul Fullers over the coals in public in the same way that Veolia is being hauled over the coals.

Ferry services are handled slightly differently to rail. Fullers is contracted with Auckland Transport to operate the ferry services, AND to handle ticketing and manage the ferry terminals. Effectively ferry stations. So it's a more horizonatlly integrated contract with Fuller. Passengers step into Fuller's hands pretty much from the moment they walk into a ferry station to when they walk out of it. Fullers collects the whole farebox too.

But that's not what happens with Rail. Auckland Transport runs the stations, issues the tickets, collects the farebox - and sub contracts to Veolia the running of the trains. I'm not sure exactly where you draw the line on a station platform between Veolia's responsibility and Auckland Transport's responsibility, but you get the picture. Basically Auckland Transport - under control of Auckland Council - is responsible for everything that happens in Auckland's railway stations.

Which as Veolia's CEO explained are basically "un-manned" - except for Britomart - because that's where tickets are issued (unless you get one on the train, and when travel is free there's no need for ticket collectors.....)

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see what happened.

Auckland Council permitted two hugely popular events at each end of its main railway line (Eden Park and Britomart). Auckland Council anticipated about 60,000 at one, and at least 100,000 at the other. But only contracted with Veolia to get 15,000 to Eden Park.

Auckland Council and Auckland Transport appear to have made no effort at all to stop crowds of people from flocking to station and ferry platforms all over Auckland, and - as both Len Brown and Veolia's CEO said - overwhelming the system.

My experience at the city ferry terminal was that it was overwhelmed - not by people coming over from Devonport - but by people who had been attracted to the waterfront to see the fireworks and who realised their only way to get a good look was to be over the other side of the Waitemata. They jammed the terminal so completely - let in first by Fullers ticketing staff, who then closed the gates to the terminal - that people could not get off the ferries. But there were so many others outside the gate, spilling out into Quay Street, that no-one could get of the terminal either.

So yes. The transport systems were overwhelmed.

But it is not because of Veolia that there was chaos.

The chaos arose because Auckland Council did not plan properly for the inevitable crowds. Central Govt shares this responsibility also. They now need to share the management of Plan B.

Mayor Brown's comments suggest Auckland Council simply hoped that crowded stations would be cleared by a steady stream of empty trains (let alone ferries). But 15,000 doesn't make much of a dent in 100,000 - let alone 200,000 - especially when they're going in both directions! Hope is not enough. I'm sure Veolia's report will make interesting reading, but that's not the report I'll be looking for. Auckland Council and Auckland Transport and the Event Managers need to get together and write a report we can all learn from so crowd chaos doesn't happen again.

Auckland's waterfront is becoming a party place at last. Make it a safe place to be, to get to, and to get home from. But don't take risks putting all our eggs in one basket down there for the really big crowds - when other adjoining public places and streets can be used more effectively and made safe.

Devonport Flood Pics Break the Drought

I had to hit the streets today with my camera.

Combination of low pressure system, heavy and steady rain, high tide, on shore winds have caused the type of flooding which Auckland has managed to avoid for many years.

These pics show: the end of Kawerau Road (with Auckland Harbour Bridge in the background; the Navy Nuclear Biological and Chemical Damage Control School (which is located on the Ngataringa Bay reclamation) and some Navy housing in flood; Devonport wharves (showing sea level); and Lake Road at the Seabreeze Road intersection and by the golf club.

Navy Adapts Heritage Sheds

This is a great little story and I am proud to share it with greater Auckland. This is a view of North Head Devonport, from Mt Victoria. You can see the old military base buildings on North Head - now occupied by DOC. Dept of Conservation.

Looking closer, down by the water, you can see the Navy land at Torpedo Bay. That's the refurbished Torpedo Wharf.

And even closer you can see two shed like buildings on the waterfront, overlooked by residential buildings - many of them heritage villas.

This is the larger of the two sheds, and will soon open as the Navy Museum. I understand the opening of the museum is sometime in October this year. You can see Mt Victoria in the background.

The shed has been reclad in corrugated iron, but retains many of its features. The original shed was built over a hundred years ago, and was an important part of the harbour's defences against seaborn invasion.

This view of the shed frontage shows a modern style entry area has been designed for public entry and also to house a sea view cafe.

The windows are original - old drawings of the original shed showed these windows in this position. A heritage architect was retained by the Navy to get the detail as right as they could for their tight budget of less than $1.5 million for the whole job.

Inside the entry is the white reception and interpretation area. The original ironwork supporting the roof is a feature.

The main part of the museum is in sharp dark contrast. Again the original roof structure is evident. When first built this area was where the mines were assembled before being put in position across the harbour entrance. The wooden structures are being added later - within the shed envelope - to house the Navy's collection of exhibits and museum displays.

Again, this dark space is lined with the original doors that led to the areas where the mines and explosives were stored.

There are 3 mine and explosive storage areas. These have the highest historic values I understand, and their restoration will be more detailed and painstaking. You can see on the floor the original rail tracks used for the trollies that carried the mines and their makings into the assembly area.

This picture shows the roof, which is curved, around 2 feet thick of concrete, which was poured into shape and supported by rail-lines structures that you can see in the ceiling.

The doorways, windows and walls are around 2 feet thick concrete also. Designed to withstand a significant explosion.

The explosives storage areas fit against the cliff with its coastal pohutakawa. Creating interesting spaces for education and coffee away from the wind.

The whole area has many interesting places to sit and explore. Whereever possible the design has incorporated the old and original woodwork and corrugated iron work and concrete.

Somehow it all blends into the surrounding Devonport landscape.

And here's the other shed, which sits alongside Torpedo Wharf.

It's an old structure too, needed some serious love and attention.

It was the Boat Shed at Torpedo Bay.

And inside it's a magic place. Well done Navy. You've shown Auckland what can be done within a tight budget, working with the Historic Places Trust, to adaptively reuse your old sheds. Fantastic.