Foraging and Hunting on Pae Korokī

According to Tauranga City Libraries Heritage Specialist Harley Couper, whether you're "foraging or hunting" there is something for everyone on Pae Korokī, the library’s recently launched online gateway to historical information. Indeed, after learning more about Pae Korokī at February’s Historical Society meeting, I thought it would be interesting to go foraging and share a few highlights.

Image courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries Pae Korokī

One of the first things to note is that most of the stories on the soon to be retired Tauranga Memories website have been transferred to Pae Korokī and can be found curated under the ‘Stories’ navigation menu on the home page. Information collated by librarians, community members and local historians such as Ellen McCormack and Christine Clement continue to be accessible.

A visit to 'Archives’ was next and this category contains some real treasures including the Tauranga Borough Council rate books and the outward letter book of the District Surveyors Office in Tauranga between 1866 and 1868. However, it was the diaries that caught my eye; those of Te Puna farmer Thomas Lochhead in particular. Twelve of his diaries, dating from 1883-1905, have been digitised and more will follow.

Image courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries Pae Korokī

One of the most popular features of Pae Korokī will undoubtedly be ‘Images’ where visitors can access an ever-increasing number of photographs that reveal the people, places and events of this region. Stand outs include the Gifford-Cross and Photo News collections. However, a real surprise was the selection of stills taken during the 1935 filming of ‘Hei Tiki’. Described as an important piece of New Zealand film history these stills must be unique.

Image courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries Pae Korokī

Onto ‘Maps’ and this section contains some intriguing hand drawn and annotated maps, including a sketch map of Katikati district and a map that shows the Maori occupation of Mauao. If this wasn’t enough, with ‘More’ visitors can search publications including the Journal of the Tauranga Historical Society 1955 to 1982 and listen to oral history recordings.

Image courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries Pae Korokī

Not only will Pae Korokī be a first stop when I’m researching, it will also be a place to visit when I have time on my hands and the urge to learn more about where I live.

The Battle for Rangataua Bay

Maungatapu, c.1960
Image courtesy of Tauranga City Library, Ref. 00-152

Our home in Welcome Bay looked out over beautiful Rangataua Bay and after I had heard the following story recalled by Carole Gordon I would often feel a wave of gratitude to those earlier settlers who put up a brave fight to prevent sewage being pumped into the bay.

In Carole’s words “I can’t remember the year when the fuss about the state houses actually began.  I think Jim Keam’s little subdivision had been put in when the Housing Corporation bought the low-lying tidal swamp below for a housing site.  The town was growing rapidly and there wasn’t enough housing so they were looking for cheap land.  When the swamp site at Welcome Bay was announced as a state housing site, local people were shocked.  We all knew that it filled up with water after storms or when there were high tides.

The Bay itself at the very end of Waitaha Road was very open and there was a real beach down in front or slightly to the left of the hall where a culvert went under the road; it took natural drainage from the swampy lower-lying land at the end of the road.  Children played there when they got off the school bus or kids from around the district would play down there on the beach.  As local people, we were very honest when we said that that was the children’s beach and that they were going to foul it by putting a sewage outlet there, from the proposed state housing subdivision.

The Demonstration
Image courtesy of Carole Gordon

This was the beginning of a long legal and heartfelt journey, people versus the state, to save Welcome Bay and the great harbour environment. The outcome was that the people prevailed and the city won an amenable government loan to the city sewage system that would replace septic tanks and avoid the leaching into the harbour.  Welcome Bay got a system of filter tanks and pumping stations that lead to Chapel Street.”

But in case the battle should appear easy this was far from the reality.  The fight went right through to the Environment Appeal Court but it began as “a spontaneous, organically erupting process.  It was totally the people, Maori and Pakeha, old and young, farmers and professionals, scientists and mothers, step by step, one challenge after another, learning as we went.  The issue of sewage disposal catalysed the Welcome Bay community.  A loosely connected action group formed in order to object to environmental effects.  Simply put we had to build a case that there was insufficient water flow.

Officials Discussing the Problem
Image courtesy of Carole Gordon

The scope of building the case grew as the process went through various legal processes.  The successful outcomes from the project are due to the many community volunteer hours, to the legal profession of Tauranga who gave services including Environment Court hearings and the DSIR scientists who freely gave advice as we undertook regular scientific testing such as coliform counts on the harbour perimeters. Over time testing revealed alarming levels of seepage from septic tanks. The houses on Waitaha Road sat empty while the process went on and on.”

George Gair, Minister of Housing, Addressing the Crowd
Image courtesy of Carole Gordon

The culmination of the project came when Bob Owens, the Mayor at the time, invited George Gair, The Minister of Housing to view the march and speak to the people.  The Bay of Plenty Times had been very supportive, carrying the story through to its conclusion.  Local bus companies offered free buses for all who wanted to be part of the event.  St Mary’s Catholic School was involved because they were feeling the effects of pollution on their foreshore.  They closed the school for the day and teachers, parents and children made a great sight as they walked across the harbour to Welcome Bay.

The march went from Maungatapu to Welcome Bay and in the end the decision was made on the day. George Gair came with a solution which he and Bob Owens must have worked out, which was to offer the council a low interest loan for sewage reticulation.  A victory for Welcome Bay and for the harbour.

Reference

A History of Welcome Bay, by Peg Cummins, 2015, ISBN 978-0-473-31165-0

Tauranga Hospital's Roof Garden

Roof Garden, from rear, 1994: puka trees: pond area, to right beyond box hedging: hebes, a variety of pittosporums, Teucrium fruticans (germander) (large grey green plant). Lower right: mixed conifers. Next to path, ground cover junipers. Bottom right corner: Australian frangipanis. Photo: Vivien Edwards

When the Clinical Services building at Tauranga Hospital was planned, Hamilton architects Gillman, Garry, Clapp and Sayers’ suggestion to use soil for roof insulation and create a garden, met with controversy. There was no other roof garden completely covering a roof in the Southern Hemisphere, let alone one on top of a hospital building. After reassurance from the architects a garden could be created without the roof leaking, and approval came from Wellington, it was decided to proceed. The therapeutic value of plants and the important role gardens play in creating optimum conditions for people to heal, was recognised. Such a garden would create an environment where patients, relatives and staff could retreat from stressful events, find beauty and solace, and be restored. When patients’ health and the weather conditions allowed, those confined to bed, could be wheeled out into the garden, along with supporting equipment such as intravenous drips. Mobile patients would make their own way.

In 1994, I had the opportunity to investigate the story of what was then Western Bay Health’s roof garden, as GP Weekly, a publication I wrote for, which now no longer exists, regularly published a page on doctors’ gardens. Ron Benfell, one of two gardeners employed at the time, showed me around the garden. His fellow gardener was Frank Thompson. The two men spent two to three days a month, maintaining the roof garden. They also cared for the other hospital gardens. Unfortunately, some gardens had to make way for new hospital buildings, to service Tauranga’s burgeoning population.

Puka tree (Meryta sinclairii), 1994. Photo: Vivien Edwards

Alyson Howell, customer services manager for Western Bay Health at the time, told me the roof garden was developed in 1971. The garden had been carefully planned. The roof was waterproofed with polybutanol, and the piped drainage system had control valves. There were layers of chaff, straw and pumice, then soil, only a spade-end deep, except where mounded to create raised areas. Despite minimum soil depth, some conifers were 20 to 25 feet high. The flowering cherries had recently been topped. A large variety of perennial species were chosen for their particular qualities, and with regard to their rooting system. “We couldn’t plant a tree with tap roots on the roof.”

Those on the upper floors of what was then the main hospital building, look down onto the garden. Cameron Road is on one side of the garden. Below, on the other side, are secluded courtyards, accessed through the clinical departments. In 1994, the courtyard nearest to the main building had a white camellia, and the central courtyard, a large Japanese maple Shin deshobo, which hung over the courtyards on either side. The furthest, more shaded courtyard grew pongas and other ferns. The railing near the entrance to the roof garden was covered with maroon-coloured jasmine and fatshedera. Bouganvilleas were being established. A cobblestone path and dwarf box hedging divided the garden into separate feature areas of conifers, small perennial shrubs and natives. A waterfall (out of sight in the photo) was set in a grassed area. It had a long run to the bottom, before the water was pumped back. Walking through the garden, which is around a quarter of an acre in size, there were weeping silver birches, pittosporums, three flowering prunus trees, surrounded by several smaller crepe myrtles, followed by mixed conifers, and a dwarf kowhai next to small perennials.

Pond area of the roof garden, 1994. Photo: Vivien Edwards

The pond had a backdrop of Leptospermums, azaleas, Choysia and Pittosporums. Before the large pukas (Meryta sinclairii) were two wide-leafed Australian cabbage trees. Pink proteas and Ceanothus behind a seat created shelter and privacy. Beyond the native shrub area was a stand of large conifers and Australian frangipanis. Along the meandering, cobblestone path, wisteria clinging to the pergola, helped to offset the hospital’s large ventilation cooling towers. At night the garden was strategically lit. Those unable to sleep, could look down on the trees.

Since 1994, the roof garden has undergone change. The pond was fenced to comply with health and safety legislation and I don’t remember seeing the waterfall when I was last there. But the roof garden is still a beautiful and restful place, worth a visit next time you are at Tauranga Hospital.