Cockie’s victory from the grave
Murray Ward always knew he was right but never lived to see it proven.
Instead his widow Evelyn is left to savour a bitter victory after an 18 year battle against officialdom over a drainage system that left part of the couple’s Waikato farm under a toxic lake and Murray urging his family from his deathbed to continue the fight.
Now Evelyn fears that despite a court victory she may not live to see everything put right.
The saga, which blighted Murray’s final years and cost the family hundreds of thousands of dollars, stemmed from a weir, or barrier over the Whangamarino River near the Ward’s Te Kauwhata farm, that raised water levels by a metre causing continuous flooding and turning a paddock into a lake.
The weir was built and maintained jointly by the Department of Conservation and the Auckland/Waikato Fish & Game Council to protect a nearby wetland.
But at the High Court in Hamilton in November, Justice Wylie ordered the two organisations to pay costs to the Ward family for the impact on their farm and cost of getting a resolution for almost two decades.
According to court documents, the Wards served a statement of claim on September 29, seeking
$780,000 in damages, another
$400,000 on the basis that the value of the farm has been reduced because of the flooding and $100,000 in compensation. What they’ll get is yet to be determined.
The victory in November was one her husband Murray did not live to see.
Not long before his death from emphysema a year ago, he spoke to his children and told them to keep up the fight, Evelyn said.
‘‘We are pursing it because it is what my husband wanted to do.
‘‘He talked to the boys and said to them... whatever happens to me carry on with this DOC case, don’t let it go.
‘‘It really annoyed him that they wouldn’t listen to him.
‘‘They don’t listen, it’s not their land and they’re not meant to flood our land.’’
The 30m long weir was built in 1994 in an effort to protect the 7000 hectare Whangamarino wetland and to ensure a minimum water level was maintained to help its restoration.
DOC was adamant the weir would not cause flooding on the Wards’ land when they raised concerns at the time.
Neither DOC nor F&G would comment on the case.
In court documents, the two groups argued that there was no evidence to suggest it was the weir causing flooding damage.
The Wards’ 200ha sheep and cattle farm borders the Whangamarino wetland.
After heavy rain, water would travel from the river down through tributaries and flood a paddock, turning it into a now permanent lake Evelyn jokingly refers to as ‘‘the big bay".
The lake’s edge is littered with Canada Geese excrement and heading straight out into the water are the remains of a fence, slowly rotting in the water.
Prior to the weir being built the lake was a paddock used by the Wards mostly for summer grazing with the trees providing shade and food for the animals.
Today it is infested with koi carp and waterfowl, the pest fish feeding off vegetation close to the edge and stirring up sediment in the process.
‘‘They are like sardines in a can.
‘‘You watch them, the food goes in one end and the dirt and s**t comes out the other,’’ Evelyn said.
The carp and the E coli from birds have turned the lake toxic. In the past, she has had cattle die from drinking the poisoned water and now fences it off to keep her stock away from it.
Despite the victory, Ward said she just wants her land back.
‘‘We want to see the water off it, but I’ll never see the benefit of it in my lifetime.’’
If the weir was removed today, she believes it would take 10 years for water levels to fall and for the land to become usable again.
‘‘I wouldn’t be alive then I think. I’m 75 now.
‘‘I think they are waiting for us all to die.’’