‘Nimbys’ oppose Erebus memorial
On the afternoon of December 7, at a picnic in Parnell, Jo Malcolm and Anne Coney will be either celebrating or commiserating.
If they are celebrating, it will be because they have blocked the construction of a memorial to the 257 people who died when Air NZ flight 901 crashed into Mt Erebus on November 28, 1979.
If they are commiserating, it will be because they have failed in their monthslong fight against the memorial being built in Dove-Myer Robinson Park.
Malcolm and Coney, who both live a stone’s throw from the park more commonly known as the Parnell Rose Gardens, insist they are not nimbys (not in my back yard). But they don’t want the structure built there.
They say ‘‘Robbie’s park’’ is too small and the memorial is too big. They say earthworks will damage the roots of a nearby pohutukawa. They say the lawn the structure is proposed for is a picnic spot, a happy place, a destination for canoodling young lovers, for eating fish and chips and drinking a glass of wine, for children to play with a ball. The memorial will ruin all that, they say.
‘‘You don’t throw a ball and you don’t drink a glass of wine next to the ‘grave’ – and I know it is not actually the grave – but it is the memorial of 257 people who have died,’’ says Malcolm, whose husband lost his father in the crash. ‘‘I don’t want my daughter to climb this tree and be reminded of the death of all those people.’’
After circulating a petition to stop the memorial, creating Facebook group Save Robbie’s Park, lobbying Auckland Council to open consultation to the public (it has since received 895 submissions), getting legal firm Russell McVeagh onboard, and commissioning alternative architectural illustrations of the memorial, Malcolm and Coney have managed to get landowner approval delayed.
The Waitemata¯ Local Board will now make its decision whether to give the memorial the go-ahead on December 3, hence the picnic that weekend.
Delay displeases some
But not everyone is celebrating the delay.
There are many who want to see the national memorial built, including relatives of passengers on the flight.
A spokesperson for the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, which is leading the project, says all feedback about the design from family members – bar one person ‘‘who lives close to the proposed location’’ – has been positive. But since the delay was announced, emails from families to the ministry have expressed disappointment, hurt and sadness that, after 40 years of trauma, they ‘‘were still having to battle for a broader acknowledgement of the loss of their loved ones’’. Many have also expressed ‘‘frustration at the actions of local residents opposing the memorial’’.
Kathryn Carter is 55 now but was only 15 when her father, pilot Jim Collins, died on Erebus. She was one of two family representatives on the panel that selected the memorial, Te Paerangi Ataata – Sky Song.
The memorial features a 17-metre-long cantilevered concrete walkway extending northeast over a terraced lawn, towards Waitemata¯ Harbour and Rangitoto Island.
The inclined walkway is bordered by two walls; one of curved, mirror-polished stainless steel features 257 unique snowflakes representing each person who died, and another of white concrete, with the names of each person on the flight and lines from the Bill Manhire poem
etched into its side.
The memorial’s footprint is 95 square metres (175sqm including the access pathway), about a fifth of the open lawn area of 945sqm. The total area of Dove-Myer Robinson Park is 55,600sqm.
Carter says the idea behind the design is a journey into the sky, appealing to the sense of exploration felt by the flight’s passengers and crew. ‘‘It is quite specific to the Erebus accident ... All the people on board were really looking forward to the journey to the ice, because it was something unique and special.’’
But on the streets of Parnell, she has been approached by neighbours in opposition to the memorial wanting to debate its existence. At the park, she has seen council signs notifying residents of the planned structure covered with graffiti. Auckland Council has confirmed that 23 out of 24 signs placed in the park were written on, asking people to object to the memorial.
On social media, she has seen hateful comments. ‘‘They forget that people hurt, that there is a lot of pain behind this.
‘‘There were children who lost both parents. How can they look at what they are doing and think it is a good thing?’’
Malcolm and Coney defend themselves against all accusations of nimbyism.
Sure, they both live within minutes of the park, and walk in it daily.
Coney says she would welcome the Erebus memorial if it was in keeping with the ‘‘Edwardian’’ style of the area. ‘‘But for a thing that looks like an on-ramp to the third harbour bridge crossing, please put it in a larger space. I don’t think that is being a nimby, I think it is being aware.’’
It seems hundreds of others agree with them. On Facebook and the online petition, which has garnered 587 signatures (plus more collected by hand), comments trashing the memorial are a dime a dozen.
It has been called ‘‘ugly’’, a ‘‘vanity structure’’, and ‘‘an eyesore’’.
Change of mind
Parnell resident and historian Rendell McIntosh says that when plans to build the memorial in the park were announced a year ago, he was unimpressed. Over the years, he says, the site has become a mishmash of native and exotic trees mixed with commemorative chairs and memorials to Dutch soldiers and Korean War veterans.
But now he has come to like it, saying it ties in with Air NZ’s origins at Mechanics Bay. McIntosh dismisses Malcolm and Coney’s concerns about the memorial’s size and the loss of green space.
‘‘I honestly believe that it is just that it has taken people by surprise, that there was not good consultation in the early days ... it was just automatically decided.’’
It is this lack of consultation that he believes is local protesters’ greatest bugbear, and indeed this is cited by those who are not in favour of the memorial.
Malcolm feels the process – which was not initially open for consultation – was truncated to achieve an unrealistic deadline for the 40th anniversary.
Greg Gilpin says he is sick of waiting. For eight days and nights, the nowretired police inspector and his Operation Overdue colleagues camped among the wreckage on Mt Erebus, working 16-hour shifts to recover the bodies. It was 27 years before their work was officially recognised. This memorial, if constructed, would recognise their efforts too.
‘‘I think what is going on now, with this latest delay, it is very disappointing and it is sad, really, for the family members of those who died. We feel it too, because when you are involved in an operation like that ... you do feel a connection to those who died.’’