Kiwis rush to keep bird centre alive
Whangārei’s Bird Recovery Centre has been given a lifeline with donations of $43,000 expected to keep the facility running for this year.
Last month, Webb expressed his fears of closing the centre after he disclosed the “high costs” of running the facility unless he could raise $200,000 in four weeks.
Webb said hours after his announcement was published by the Advocate, he had many people from across Aotearoa get in touch and extend their support.
“We didn’t really expect this overwhelming sort of support from the public. But this tells me people like what we do and like to have us around.”
A Givealittle page raised over $13,000 while the centre’s bank account shows about $30,000 was donated.
Although the total raised is only a quarter of the required amount, Webb estimated the funds would help run operations at least for this year.
The news of the closure struck a chord with Kiwis, particularly Northlanders, who took to social media and narrated their fond memories with the conservationist.
One local shared how he had never met a person so “loving and dedicated” as Webb, who had rescued his pet magpie from an annoying neighbour about 30 years ago.
Another remembers taking an injured tui to the centre and getting a “wonderful” tour of the facility.
Others commented on how it would be “absolutely devastating” if the facility were to close permanently.
Webb is scheduled to make his second appearance on the Breakfast show tomorrow to spread awareness of how the centre operates and the need for more funds.
www.northernadvocate.co.nz
ASusan Botting Local Aemocracy Reporter
new $7.5 million one-stopshop multi-agency civil defence emergency coordination centre for Northland is expected to open in Whangārei by the end of 2026.
The 809sq m multi-agency co=ordination centre ( MACC) will be Northland’s first stand-alone regionallevel emergency co-ordination centre (ECC) building. It will also be the northernmost facility of its type in New Zealand.
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell visited the site of the new centre on Friday and announced $1,037,000 of Government top-up funding towards the new facility.
This money is the final top-up for the project, to which ratepayers from across Northland’s four councils have already contributed $6,533,000 in the past two years.
The single-storey, multi-agency coordination centre will be built on 3000sq m of Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) Mansfield Tce land in Whangārei’s city-edge Regent suburb.
Construction is expected to start in the next year.
Mitchell said New Zealand was at high risk for events like earthquakes and tsunamis. It could better respond to these by having a network of coordination centres nationwide.
“Communication and connecting is extremely important. This centre will go a long way to ensuring there’s better communication and connectedness, with all first responders in one location,” Mitchell said in Whangārei today.
“When constructed, the multiagency co-ordination centre will bring together response agencies under one roof, allowing for faster information sharing, more-efficient resource allocation and improved coordination, and collaborate before, during and after emergencies.
“Ultimately, this is about ensuring local and regional emergency responses can be initiated swiftly and effectively, helping to keep people safe,” he said.
Building design work will be among the next preparation stages.
The centre’s impetus comes from the March 2021 tsunami threat caused by an earthquake in the Kermadecs north of New Zealand. It marked the region’s biggest tsunami evacuation as tens of thousands of people had to move to higher ground.
The North’s ECC venue is based in NRC’s main Water St, Whangārei, head office building, which is roughly at sea level and on the edge of a tsunami evacuation zone — as well as in a one-in-100-year flood hazard zone.
Northland Civil Defence evacuated this NRC-based response site as a result of the March 2021 tsunami threat, shifting to the Regent Fenz offices on higher ground.
The new building’s site is about 30m above sea level and above the tsunami and flood hazard zones potentially affecting NRC in Water St.
Fenz Northland district manager Wipari Henwood said during the 2021 tsunami response, civil defence and emergency responders were crammed into Fenz’s Mansfield Tce offices.
“We had everybody here. Even though we were crammed, you could look across the room and make things happen,” Henwood said.
Northland ratepayers’ $6,533,000 towards the centre’s construction and establishment since 2022 is made up of NRC ratepayers’ $5 million, Whangārei District Council ratepayers’ $933,000, Far North District Council’s $500,000, and Kaipara District Council’s $100,000.
Northland Civil Defence emergency manager Graeme MacDonald said NRC would be borrowing to build the centre, and these rates would be used to repay that borrowing over 17 years until 2038-39.
“Northland has had a number of large region-wide emergencies, but we do not have a dedicated multiagency co-ordination centre that enables a truly integrated acrossagency response,” MacDonald said.
The four councils and Fenz have collaborated on the centre.
Northland’s ECC fires into action when the scale and seriousness of a weather or other event such as 2023’s Cyclone Gabrielle requires centralised, region-level emergency response support.
Henwood said the new centre would house about 40 staff Civil Defence and Fenz staff during business-as-usual times.
That would increase to about 60 people when an emergency was declared.
LDR is local body journalism co
funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.