TOKATEA TO BE REMOVED FROM SCHEDULE FOUR!

The Tokatea has had a very eventful past. Exploited initially for timber and then converted into a fair imitation of a Swiss cheese.  The miners tunelled through it to follow the gold bearing reefs. Early pictures show the Coromandel slope totally denuded of vegetation with mining spoil spilling down the steep terrain. At this stage you would have to agree with Gerry Brownlee that, in terms of biodiversity, it was of low value. However the Tokatea has come back, if not completely. The creek bottoms are now well vegetated and home to two species of our archaic native frogs. In fact they can sometimes be found in the old mining tunnels! One of these, Archey's frog, is nationally at critical levels due to the attack of chytrid fungus and habitat loss.

The dramatic vistas we see from the Tokatea Saddle are of a volcanic terrain. Unfortunately vulcanism has also lead to the formation of gold and silver bearing quartz reefs. Some locally were of such size that they were known as bonanza reefs. The Tokatea is part of a much larger field known as the Hauraki goldfield. It extends from near Paeroa, through the entire Peninsula and over to Great Barrier Is. The other local area up for rescheduling is a coastal site within Coromandel Township known as Hauraki Hill. Most of the old gold fields are considered to be "highly prospective" with current technology. Wether it is sufficiently advanced to surgically remove three grams of gold from each tonne of rock is very much a mute point!

The Govt. is spending $4 million over the next nine months identifying other prospective mineral sites so there could be more land removed from Schedule Four protection. This, of course, would be after the public has had it's opportunity to make submissions on the issue. Time is desperately short. Submissions must be in by 5pm., Tuesday, the 4th of May, which is hardly conducive to a worthwhile debate. It is difficult to avoid the thought that this issue has already been decided. It needed an Act of Parliament to extend Shedule Four protection to D.O.C. land on our part of the Peninsula. Removing the protection is a much simpler process. Hope springs eternal however. Help will shortly be available at http://www.watchdog.org.nz/ in helping those interested to make their submission. There is good information at this site and some excellent links. Perhaps the best of these for getting up to speed is that of Forest and Bird.