A DEAR JOHN LETTER

Dear John


I have a number of regrets concerning the present situation. The first is that I have been here before! Thirty years on and once again I have had to fix a COROMANDEL NO MINING STICKER ON MY CAR!

The original Act which gave Schedule 4 protection to the Conservancy estate had broad cross party support. It was hugely popular on the Coromandel.


The second regret relates to the very short time available in which to research and make a submission. It is much exceeded by the length of time the Govt. spent preparing it's proposal!

Thirdly I regret that I am only able to make comment on less than 15% of the Schedule 4 that the Govt. is intending to open up for mineral prospecting.

The Public has already spoken on this matter. Attempting to re legislate in this manner is tantamount to an attack on participatory democracy.

The Coromandel is no stranger to the booms and busts that are an integral part of overseas funded exploitative industries. We still live with the environmental consequences of timber and mineral exploitation that occurred in the Victorian era. Little of the wealth generated by these activities remained in the Coromandel. When the resource was fully exploited the industries moved on, leaving high unemployment and a degraded environment behind them.

The thirty year "sticker interval" has been well used by those who live and work in the Upper Coromandel. They have found another way to go forward and built a local economy on sustainable aspects of the environment. The landscape is superb as are the opportunities for recreation. The toxic wastes from earlier mining ventures did find their way onto the harbour floor but are now sealed off by subsequent natural sedimentation. The seas are pure and clean again. While there might not be a conservationist behind every tree you wouldn't need to examine too many to find one! Environmental groups have sprung up all over the Peninsula during that thirty year period. Working for love only they have made big inroads into undoing some of the depredations of the past. In truth it is a multigenerational task, but these are people who want to leave the place better than they found it. A new generation is taking up the task with enthusiasm.

There has been an economic and environmental Renaissance on the Upper Coromandel. Tourist related and diverse marine aquaculture ventures have developed. These are largely, locally funded and, unlike mining ventures, will be here tomorrow and well into the foreseeable future. They rely on a resource that cannot be exhausted! It can however be compromised if the Coromandel is forced to return to an economy based on 19th century principles rather than those of the 21st which it has so successfully embraced.

The tourist hub for the Northern Coromandel is the township of Coromandel. It is also a traffic nexus. You must move through it to access Colville on the west coast. You must drive through it to access the east coast settlements of Kennedy Bay and Tuateawa, often a fairly problematic road. It also happens to traverse the major Tokatea/Kapanga prospective field. In fact there is no way of avoiding the main street. Trucks carrying ore will not be excepted, they must drive through it!

So, why would they? Well, there are three prospective areas around the township. One, Hauraki Hill is coastal and in proximity to residential properties. It is within the township! The Tokatea/Kapanga field looms over the township. Both are within view. Any activity of an opencast nature in either site is unthinkable. Underground mining is an outside possibility as there are big conservation issues in both locations. Assuming that, despite these factors, it did occur, on site extraction is also impossible on the grounds of visual and other pollution. Ore would need to be treated off site and ore trucks would roll through the main street of Coromandel. Coromandel would be transformed from a tourist hub with a plethora of pavement cafes to a mining town.

There are many issues relating to previous mining activities. Reworking these could have serious repercussions for the aquaculture industry. Many extend below sea level. They are full of sea water, probably acidic and tainted by heavy metals. Only continual pumping of these mines will permit them to be exploited, but where does the contaminated sea water go?

Coromandel has set its sights on a long term and sustainable future. Why should this and the future of the Northern Coromandel be put in jeopardy? The region has had enough of the long term pain resulting from the short term gains that are associated with the exploitative industries. Tourists are not going to flock to a region that advertises itself as "WELCOME TO COROMANDEL, ITS JUST THE SAME AS EVERY WHERE ELSE! Well it isn't. It is unique and precious and deserves to remain so.

WATCHDOG: SUBMISSIONS AND NOTIFICATION OF MARCH

Details of the submission process and a guide are now available should you wish to have a say, pro or anti, with regard to goldmining in the Coromandel. There is a pro forma online submission and you can add or delete material to this. There is also notification of a protest march in Auckland on the day prior to the submissions closing date. Click on http://www.watchdog.org.nz/

Autumn Birds.

Colville is home to much more than oystercatchers. The NZ Dotterel accumulates here after the breeding season. This flock comprised 43 individuals and only a few were in breeding plumage. Assuming the rest were young birds it must have been a good breeding season. There are also good numbers remaining where they breed.

Also on the mudflats, a couple of dozen Bar Tailed Godwits. These usually start their long journey to Alaska toward the end of March. None of these birds are in breeding plumage and they were showing none of the nervous behaviour of birds about to depart. Maybe they will overwinter here.

The Brown Teal is one of the many gems of the Northern Coromandel. M.E.G. has paid a major part in the recovery of this species. This image is from Carey Rd with a female Mallard in the background.

Much prized on Gt. Barrier they even have their own road signs.

No Bush Robins seen but they must surely find their way down to Tuateawa from Port Charles in the next few years. This from Bushy Park W(h)anganui.

This last image from Kennedy Bay. The White Heron is back.
P.S. If you are really fascinated by Godwits a comprehensive and well illustrated book was released just before Xmas. GODWITS Long haul champions. Keith Woodley. Printed by Raupo ISBN 978-0-14-301193-4.

WHITE OYSTERCATCHER IN COLVILLE BAY.

White birds of any species are quite a rarity. It was a real thrill to see this individual on the mudflats at Colville.
In the summer the only oystercatchers you are likely to see on Coromandel beaches are the Variable Oystercatcher.

 Variable because they range from pure black, to having differing amounts of white on their bodies. They breed with us and can be extremely aggressive when protecting their eggs or offspring.
As the season moves toward autumn they are joined by flocks of the Southern Pied Oystercatcher.

These breed down south but many of them winter in the north in areas like Colville and the Firth of Thames. Unlike the Variable Oystercatcher they are definitely pied, with the white on their chest extending onto the shoulder above the wing.
The species of the white bird is a bit of a mystery as it cannot be identified by its colouration. In Colville it was keeping company with S.I.Pied Oystercatchers. That seems to be a fair indication. Strangely though. another, or perhaps the same white bird,was seen, in mid March, on an Auckland mudflat. This time with a number of black Variable Oystercatchers.

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.

BOUTIQUE GOLD MINING. THE LILLIS MINE.

Gold mining has been part of the Coromandel scene for over 150 years. Current events suggest that it might again be so in the future.

The Lillis Mine is on private land, rather than D.O.C. estate and it ceased production in the 1970's. ARGO ADVENTURES guides visits to the mine and this summer they took a party organised by M.E.G. as part of their summer programme.

Whangapoua

The Argo is an all terrain vehicle and provides an exciting ride to the top of the Whangapoua Hill. After that you are on foot and must walk down a bulldozed track for, maybe half an hour to reach the mine workings. The track is through regenerating bush, previously logged for rimu and totara. After 40years the track is much degraded, with a massive slip in one part. Negotiable by foot but too much for the intrepid Argo!

Mine entrances exist at various points. They bear the marks of excavation by pneumatic drill and all have slight upward slopes to drain them and assist with the removal of mined materials. The passage of years seems to have covered any signs of excavated spoil.

The Lillis seems to have been a fairly small scale operation. At a point below the mine workings a ramshackle structure of timber and old iron houses the machinery used to carry out the preliminary extraction of gold and silver from the ore. It would have been operated by one man. The motive power came from a diesel engine, which does still work. It seems that around a couple of wheel barrows of ore would have been processed at a time as the capacity is quite small. Ore concentrate was sent to Australia for the final refining stage.

On the return journey you retrace your steps and eventually reach the ridge and look down on Coromandel township. Along this ridge line are the plugged exploratory bore holes drilled in the early seventies. Further down the track, and quite close to town you reach other mine entrances. Should you venture here without a guide do take care.

 The entrances are unprotected and you can encounter vertical shafts just a few metres inside.

 Eventually you exit onto Lillis Lane. It is an interesting look at the recent past. Certainly a contrast to the massive mining venture at Waihi.

Coromandel town

TUATEAWA AND THE 1080 SAGA.

On the national scene, if perhaps not the local one, this issue could be coming to a close. A recent visit to two anti 1080 websites showed a distinct lack of interest. The majority of postings on one were well reasoned and in support of 1080. The other had an opinion poll that had only managed to gather eight votes. Locally the Waikato Times has decided to accept no further letters to the editor on this topic.

On the national political scene there is broad cross party support for 1080. The Animal health Board (A.H.B.), by far the biggest user has set it's sights on eradicating T.B. , primarily transmitted by possums, from the national dairy herd by 2013. Built into the R.M.A. and the regulations under which Govt. agencies and territorial authorities act is a requirement to protect our endemic wildlife and ecosystems.

Opponents have been unable to suggest any effective means of achieving these economic and environmental objectives without the use of 1080. Similarly they have been unable to prove any damage to human health, our economy or the environment arising from it's use.

Lacking any significant factual backing the anti 1080 cause has had to be promoted by alternative means. Events in Taranaki this week are an excellent illustration of an approach used nationally and also on the local scene. It would seem that two opponents placed themselves deliberately under a 1080 drop. Working on weed control for a D.O.C. subcontractor they would have been well aware of the drop. D.O.C. had run a year long campaign of education and information in the area. The employer of the men had been informed of the drop two days in advance and D.O.C. recorded the call. It was a major media coup until the press became aware of this fact.

Motivations on the Peninsula differ a little from those on the national scene. The hunting fraternity are the group most obviously disadvantaged by 1080 use. However there are no deer on the Peninsula. Pigs tend to survive a little better in our bush. Anecdotal evidence is that, with their high reproductive rate and the improved bush resulting from possum control their numbers are higher than formerly. However one cannot go past the fact that possums themselves, besides being an environmental pest are also an exploitable resource that some would like to conserve. In recent times possum/merino garments have become big ticket items on the tourist market. In 2009 a 1080 operation on the Coromandel was disrupted by the occupation of two helicopter landing sites. It is of interest that a major organiser of the disruption was also the co developer of a portable possum plucking machine.

Over the years the Coromandel has been a haven for many with views and lifestyles that are out of the mainstream. There is a fierce streak of independence coupled with a dislike of Govt. interference. One particular view appears to be a significant factor in attitudes to 1080. Bio dynamic farming and homeopathy have arisen from the work of Rudolf Steiner, better known for his endeavours in education. Followers of this approach are very unlikely to be 1080 supporters! The following is a quote relating to animal or plant pest control the bio dynamic way. " The homeopathic technique involves burning parts of a plant or animal pest, at an appropriate stage of the lunar cycle, then formulating the ash into solutions (tinctures) or mixtures with sand, the potency of which is claimed to increase with increasing dilution." By this definition a biodynamicist would consider a low concentration of 1080 much more potent than a higher one. It is the complete reverse of conventional logic. Extending this viewpoint, the burning of possum skins and mixing with quarry dust has been seriously proposed as a working alternative to other forms of possum control, both on the Coromandel and in other parts of the country. The technique is known as peppering and, again, I quote " The specific preparation methods produce the negative energy of the pests reproductive force, operating on a vibrational level, not a material one" Hmmm! Interpreting; sprinkling this material about extinguishes the possum sex drive. Strictly on the non material level of course! It would be great if it worked, but it doesn't!

It is of interest that the major anti 1080 organisation in the Coromandel did not make a submission to the E.R.M.A. enquiry. Supporting some views in open forum would be a big ask. The Upper Coromandel Landcare Association later called the process a farce. Promoting itself as an environmental organisation, it is really a single interest lobby group. It has alternative methods of achieving it's ends. Habitat Tuateawa on the other hand presented a thoughtful, well worded pro 1080 submission. These were the views that carried the day. It is to hope that they will continue to be sustained. All of those incredible gains made in our region could so easily be lost without the recourse to 1080.