Kaitiaki monitoring shellfish at a beach that would be covered by a reclamation if the Northport expansion were to go ahead.
Photo: Supplied/Patuharakeke Te Iwi Trust Board

A Northland hapū says it has been vindicated by a surprise decision to reject plans for a major port expansion in Whangārei Harbour.

This week, commissioners declined a raft of resource consents required by Northport, which operates the deepwater port at Marsden Point, to build a dedicated container terminal.

The company sought consents for, among other things, a 12-hectare reclamation, a 250-metre wharf extension, and 1.2 million cubic metres of dredging.

The applications were lodged with the Northland regional and Whangārei district councils but the decision was made by independent commissioners.

The wholesale rejection of Northport’s plans has been described as “disastrous” and “a terrible outcome” by Northland MP Grant McCallum, but hailed as a correct and clear decision by local hapū Patuharakeke.

Juliane Chetham, a spokesperson for Patuharakeke Te Iwi Trust Board, said the commissioners’ decision came as a pleasant surprise.

“We haven’t often been in the fortunate position of having a decision go our way, but so it was. We definitely feel vindicated,” she said.

Northport wanted to extend its wharf by 250 metres and carry out 1.2 million cubic metres of dredging.
Photo: Supplied

The commissioners’ reasons for rejecting the port company’s plans – the loss of public access, and cultural and recreational values if the reclamation went ahead – echoed the hapū’s concerns.

“The key concerns for us were the loss of our takutai moana [foreshore and seabed], the loss of access and the severance of our connection to the beach and the reserve that we consider to be our traditional whenua and moana.”

Chetham said the reclamation would have swallowed up the only remaining white sand beach on the southern side of the harbour entrance.

A pathway included in the proposal would have allowed access to the water, but it would have been sandwiched between Channel Infrastructure’s fuel storage facility on one side and Northport on the other.

“So that last stretch of sand between the current reclamation and the refinery jetty would be gone, and that’s the pathway we traditionally take to get to our mataitai, our pipi beds at Marsden Point.”

Chetham said the area was already heavily industrialised but the kaimoana beds there were a “last bastion”.

Other beds had been covered by the existing port, and shellfish beds further inside the harbour were badly degraded.

The beach was also relatively accessible for people with children or limited mobility, accessible even by wheelchair or pushchair from the car park on Ralph Trimmer Drive.

Erosion caused by Cyclone Gabrielle had made access to the beach on the Bream Bay side of Marsden Point difficult.

While the commissioners’ decision came as a surprise, Chetham said the hapū believed it was correct and clear.