Future of ‘prettiest view’ unclear
An ambitious plan to turn a 150-hectare quarry into a lake surrounded by native forest and wetland for public use hangs in the balance after the area was sold to a private developer.
The quarry operated by Holcim at Cape Foulwind near Westport was in operation from 1958 to 2016, producing 900,000 tonnes of limestone and marl annually.
It sits in Tauranga Bay, which artist and surveyor Charles Heaphy described as the prettiest view in the world, when he trekked from Nelson to the West Coast in 1846.
The same view is admired today by the nearly 100,000 tourists who visit the nearby fur seal breeding colony every year.
The company won numerous environmental awards for its plan to turn the quarry into a lake surrounded by ‘‘a mosaic of indigenous forest and wetland communities similar to that which would have existed prior to human principally European arrival’’. Areas to be restored included farmland, the quarry operations area, and overburden dumps.
A Holcim spokeswoman said extensive rehabilitation and stability work on the quarry continued until the company sold the land in
2020. Nearly a million trees, due to reach maturity in 20 years time, had been planted.
‘‘Holcim believes that the rehabilitation requirements under the [Buller District Council] district plan are generally completed,’’ she said.
When it won a top industry award in 2015 from the Aggregate and Quarry Association for environmental excellence, it promised the Westport community it would rehabilitate the land into a public recreation site. However, the area has since been sold to a group of Auckland developers whose plans are unclear.
The Buller District Council said the new owners had no obligation to continue the rehabilitation efforts unless they were continuing cement production.
Graeme Walsh, who owns a bach at Tauranga Bay and whose family has been connected to the area for 140 years, said Holcim’s plan had not eventuated, and the rehabilitation was unfinished.
He was campaigning for the area to be protected from development and for some of the land to be returned to the community.
In 1972, the Buller County Council voted unanimously to have Holcim’s coastal farmland gazetted as a reserve.
‘‘Although there was a lot of talk, nothing of substance eventuated,’’ Walsh said.
He feared the responsibility of rehabilitating the land could be ‘‘lost’’ with the new owners, and believed the council had failed to ensure the work was completed.
The council’s district plan includes a requirement for cement production zones to be left in a ‘‘manner which is compatible with the landscape setting’’.
Buller District Council chief executive Sharon Mason said Holcim had been required to submit a landscape and rehabilitation plan and annual work reports while cement production was happening.
‘‘These conditions are only triggered for those carrying out cement production, therefore new owners – unless they were to start cement production – do not have a responsibility to carry out rehabilitation,’’ she said.
After an Official Information Act request, the council could find only one annual work report filed by Holcim, from 2007, which said rehabilitation was ongoing.
With council approval, Holcim sold its 8ha on-site nursery to local developers for a three-house subdivision in 2010.
Holcim’s plan stated it hope to turn the old quarry into a prime example of how sites should be rehabilitated.
‘‘The aim is to rehabilitate the site into a recreation amenity for public use.’’
The company closed its Westport operations with the loss of about 120 jobs in 2016 after it decided to import cement through Timaru and Auckland ports instead.
In 2018, the Buller District Council agreed in principle to pay $5 million for Holcim’s assets, including 521ha of land and the quarry. The sale did not go through and the assets were later sold to a group of Auckland developers understood to include Patrick Harrison, co-owner of Harrisons Carpet & Flooring.
Buller’s mayor at the time, Garry Howard, has since been involved in marketing the land in his role as real estate agent.
Last year, Howard advertised a quarry lake view section for residential use, but the land has since been withdrawn from sale.
Howard declined to comment.
‘‘These conditions are only triggered for those carrying out cement production, therefore new owners – unless they were to start cement production – do not have a responsibility to carry out rehabilitation.’’
Sharon Mason, Buller District Council chief executive