Patiti Point [44°25'S 171°16'E] is a small promontory immediately to the south of Timaru. A reef breaks the seas, and provides safe passage for boats which in the past landed about where the Timaru Creek outfall pipe is today. In the early days the Hine te Kura stream spilled out here, and it was a gathering place for Maori fishing parties and for shore whalers. By 1875 Peeress Town was established, a small community where settlers were housed temporarily on arrival, and which later fell into disrepute and was demolished. Today Patiti Point is a pleasant parking spot, and a place to walk the dog. The scrubby foreshore of South Beach provides coastal defence for the clay cliff atop which are the colourful cottages of South Street.
Archive for the ‘Urban spaces’ Category
Patiti Point
Wednesday, October 17th, 2007Blessed
Saturday, January 31st, 2009
We all felt blessed by the weather, the calm sea, Ian’s flags and the good turn-out for the blessing by Bruce Wikitoa of Rob d’Auverne’s sculpture Icthys. Icthys now presides over the foreshore, seeking the breeze, and attracting a constant stream of local and overseas visitors. This charming spot has been dubbed “the Village Green” by residents.
Exploratory works south of Queen Street
Wednesday, October 15th, 2008
Washingtons Drilling & Exploration were on the foreshore today, they’re getting core samples. I was asked what I was doing taking this photograph, and quizzed about whether I thought I was trespassing. There’ll be a fence and security guards next. I hope the guards know that I, like them, am a shareholder. Older residents say there was dumping of toxic waste, along by the Queen Street crossing. That’s a subject everybody’s going to skirt around if they can. Perhaps it would be better to investigate it now, rather than after a powdered milk store has been built there. Certainly there was general dumping by the railways. What is more amazing is that the 50-year hazard line goes right through the proposed development site. What do investors make of that?
Milk Store No 2 looms
Friday, October 3rd, 2008
We’re not sure if the Timaru ratepayers would be aware that Prime Port plan a second milk store. It would be so big that it would extend from the existing milk store right down to the old block works abutment, and would completely dominate the foreshore. Anyway, the test pits dug two weeks ago were exploratory to check out the foundations. The two test pits shown in the photograph mark the southern-most footings. Presumably the fence with the signs saying ‘no access’ will be quite a bit south of that again. Why is it that our council are so arrogant that they think projects of this scale can win approval without public consultation? Or do they keep these things quiet hoping to advance them to the point of no return before we find out? Legally Prime Port may be within their rights, but is it not ill-timed with milk prices at a twenty-year low, with the big container ships gone, with a tug we don’t need still to be paid for, with the first store far from full, and with large vacant sections of the port industrial zone unconsolidated and under-utilised? The Port Company returned a marginal profit this year, but next year isn’t going to look so good. Unless of course they can do some clever stuff with utilisation of the land. Is it that we actually need this shed? Or is it simply property speculation at a time when most people have the sense to be tightening their belts, instead of sticking their necks out?
A rough computer sketch showing the scale of the proposed structure.
Proposal withdrawn
Friday, May 2nd, 2008Today the developer withdrew the “Application for land use consent No.6739 proposed Betts Tribute Centre” adjacent to Patiti Point. Friends of Patiti Point are very relieved to hear this news, because for the time being at least the threat of an unwanted development has been removed. People who love the area should stay alert to the fact that this piece of land will possibly now be offered on the open market, and somebody may buy it, and they too may want to develop it in ways that are not appropriate. Meanwhile, we can relax, and enjoy!
New Mission Statement
Friday, December 7th, 2007When I arrived in Timaru from the UK ten years ago, seeing the town that would be my new home for the first time, I thought what a charming but hotch-potch place it was. Everywhere I looked I saw pragmatic solutions: a spindly pedestrian bridge linking the seamens mission to the red light district; a port feeder road like a helter skelter borrowed from the fairground below; a carpark on a roof; a statue facing the public toilets. It’s like nobody planned the place, it just grew up organically like a child’s railway layout. I was amazed to be in a country where I could choose any design for my house and plonk it down much as I pleased within a reasonably flexible framework of rules. Fast forward to now and I start to see the problem: the short-term approach to planning is coming home to roost. The port sprawling southwards because it’s too hard to consolidate the already-developed port industrial zone. Nowhere to put a feeder road into the port, clip-on proposals like the North Street overpass competing with brute force solutions like driving a four-lane highway down Evans Street. A funeral home that wants to shift to Recreation 2 from beneath an overpass that isn’t even going to be there. My suggestion is that the town planners are given a six-month sabbatical to tour provincial towns around the world and observe other people’s solutions to similar problems. When they come back they should be given greater authority, and should not have closed networks of entrepreneurs pushing their arms up their backs. This is a town in need of a new mission statement, a common agenda, a code of ethics, and a systems approach to a cohesive plan for its future. The Council are very helpful in providing information when one asks, but I believe a more public display of proposed projects would alleviate suspicion, and would help us all feel engaged in the process, and subsequently engender pride in our town.
Tsunami
Monday, November 26th, 2007The Tsunami discussion was raised by N. Leary who wrote in the Timaru Herald letters to the editor on 23rd November 2007: “It’s not if, but when, the big wave comes. How safe will the complex be? This on top of the Government stating during the year that no permits would be given for coastal development because of the chance of rising sea levels.” It would be useful to have a reference for that Government statement, and if anyone can find it we’d be much obliged.
Just trying to get a handle on what the risk at the site in question really is I went to the NIWA site and looked around. The most recent event of any significance appears to have been on the 18th November 2006: “wave heights recorded here in New Zealand were … 0.58 metres at Timaru” [link].
A wee footnote here, I found this: “Coastal urban planning needs to take sea level rise into account because its effects will be apparent during the typical replacement time of urban infrastructure such as buildings (before about 70 years). For local planning, ideally a risk assessment methodology may be employed to estimate the risk caused by sea level rise. In many locations, planning thresholds would also have to be considered in the light of possible changes in storm surge climatology due to changes in storm frequency and intensity, and (in some locations) changes to return periods of riverine flooding. In the medium term (decades), urban beaches will need beach re-nourishment and associated holding structures such as sea walls. Changes in storm and wave climatology are crucial factors for determining future coastal erosion.” (Walsh et al., 2004).
Walsh, K. Betts, H. et al (2004) “Using Sea Level Rise Projections for Urban Planning in Australia” Journal of Coastal Volume 20, Issue 2 (April 2004) pp. 586–598. [Online] Available from: here. (Accessed: 20th December 2007).
What is it with abattoirs?
Friday, November 23rd, 2007What is it with meat works that they always put them in choice places overlooking the ocean? Pukeuri, Pareora, Timaru. It took me some time to realise the answer, outfall pipes [1]. In Victorian times with frozen meat fetching twice the price in England than on the domestic market [2] focus was on industry, not the pretty view.
It is perhaps not surprising then that in such a young country pragmatic decisions are still valued over aesthetic ones, or that where town planners start to buy into aesthetics their eye is naive. I believe that computer generated plans and architects impressions tend to paint rosy pictures — drag and drop makes it too easy to create fantasies from your desktop. Architects work for clients for pay, so it is a natural mistake that they sometimes turn a bit of a blind eye on their code of ethics, and show what the client wants to see rather than what will actually be.
1. Golder Kingett Mitchell are consultants working in this area, a good starting place is their Stormwater Services page.
2. Solow, R (2007) The Nineteenth Century Heritage: Refrigeration And The Meat Industry. [Online] Available from: here (Accessed: 23rd November 2007).
3. Christchurch City Libraries (2005) The works of the Canterbury Frozen Meat Company at Belfast [picture, online] Available from: here (Accessed: 23rd November 2007).
Sparc Kiwi Walk No 7
Saturday, October 20th, 2007The description of this walk states: “From the Patiti Point Reserve. Follow the road along the coast behind the Caledonian Grounds. This is a popular spot for surfers. Signs guide you onto the track through the sand dunes….”
TDC CE values R and R
Saturday, October 20th, 2007TDC’s Chief Executive Officer maintains a web page on which he sings the praises of a valuable asset to Timaru’s recreational facilities: “Patiti Point is a rest and recreation site, also offering BBQ and picnic facilities”. Actually the public bbq is a really nice facility, we’ve partied it up with students on a few occasions, sharing a big bottle of lemonade.