To whom it may concern,
When Chamberlain Park Golf Course was planned for development, I became deeply concerned, especially upon viewing the Council masterplan proposal. I found the plan absurd and ill-informed. I grew up in a house on Linwood Ave and spent many long hours playing in the Waititiko creek and exploring other parts of Chamberlain Park as a barefooted child.
I am now 83 years old which is about the age of the actual golf course that was created by the sweat and toil of government-sponsored labour in the Depression years using only pick, shovel and wheelbarrow. It was a scrubby wasteland before it became a golf course.
The plantings of native and exotic trees at the park today provide a green canopy that protects mainly local residents from the ever increasing pollution from the motorway traffic. Our forefathers saw fit to develop a public access 18 hole golf course there for all to use. Even before everyone owned a car, people travelled by tram and bus from all over Auckland to get there.
I am affronted that Council would allow, let alone pay for, such an ill-conceived and disgraceful effort to form part of its decision making process around the future of this park.
I therefore challenge the masterplan proposal for the following reasons:
1. There was clearly no historical, geological or environmental assessment done in formulating the proposal.
2. The artificial-turf sports fields and car park by St Lukes Road to be created by tons of landfill are where the underground water caves are that feed Western Springs. I know this because we played there when Waititiko was in flood after a storm – the caves leaked above the ground exactly there. No underground water survey was done.
3. The whole history of how the land was transformed and how the contours of the unique volcanic lava flow were preserved has been completely disregarded.
4. No attempt was made to understand the treescape at Chamberlain Park – instead the masterplan, for example, shows an amazing row of Pohutukawa as simply a row of trees. Did anyone leave their computer and actually go to the park to seek what was there? Then it ignores the impact that its radical plan will have on the tree life – Dr Louise Kane took it upon herself to actually go there and count them and more than 1,000 trees will be destroyed.
5. No survey was done on the bird life – especially tui that nest in the condemned tall pines ringed so they were safe from rats. The morning I went to take photos for my poster sketches tui flew out from their nests. Also there was no mention of Professor Morton’s bird corridor report.
6. There was no mention of the history of the Waititiko and the cause of its disgraceful pollution by sewage run-off into the water.
7. There was no survey of who uses the course – the kids during the holidays, the learners, the working classes who rely on Chamberlain Park for their recreation, the Maori and Samoan people who have a long history with the park, and other ethnic groups. I happened to see a letter from descendants of the great Maori painter Ralph Hotere, a contemporary of mine, whose family have held an annual golf tournament at Chamberlain for more than 30 years. Locals run and walk across the course in the early morning, though this has recently declined due to increased golfing use at the park – early and late. The morning I went to Chamberlain Park in June, the middle of winter, over 100 groups were already golfing. The locals have always wanted more access and a safe walking and cycling path along the Waititiko.
I don’t know how much money was spent on this masterplan proposal but whatever it was, it should be returned in my view. The Albert Eden Local Board members who agreed with this proposal do not deserve to be in public office.
I understand that several of the key drivers of this proposal are no longer there. We need to stop this stupidity and reckless destruction of our open spaces. I am not a golfer but it is golf that has preserved and enhanced this magnificent piece of land through tree planting and protection of the lava flow forms. Let’s not destroy what is there simply because someone thinks they have a bright idea. Much more care needs to be taken of our green and open spaces.
Stanley Palmer
Mt Eden resident and lifelong Auckland citizen
Friday the 28th June 2019 8am. Already 150 golfers and a thousand birds – many native.
They feed and nest in the tall pines safe from rats.
Preserve Chamberlain Park Golf Course – Stanley Palmer 2019 chal