[Aramoana League]
John Davis, secretary, Aramoana League Inc.
Excerpt from letter dated 25 July 2012:
(To Whom It May Concern)
“….The current Pilot’s Wharf, built around 1900, was first recorded as a landing stage in the early 1800s. It played a part in the construction of the Aramoana Mole which started in 1884. The wharf has been allowed to become run down over the years as various authorities involved have shuffled their responsibilities and failed to provide the routine maintenance required.
Since 1989, when the Otago Harbour Board was abolished, as part of local authority reform, recreational and non-commercial wharf structures were passed to the DCC. The DCC state they were unaware they owned the Pilot’s Wharf; hence it has not been maintained since that date – 23 years of neglect. Having now determined they are the owners they want to demolish it!”
█ For more information and the full letter, go to DCC report:
The Aramoana League’s Draft Proposal to Restore the Former Aramoana Pilots Wharf (13 October 2014).
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Aramoana and Pilots Wharf Location
(also known as Spit Wharf, Spit Jetty and Aramoana Wharf)
[click to enlarge]
DCC Webmaps – Aramoana township and Pilots Wharf JanFeb 2016
[Aramoana League]
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### ODT Online Sat, 17 Dec 2016
Tow-boat turned back
Contact: Shawn McAvinue, ODT
A Dunedin City Council contractor has been replaced after a botched attempt to get a digger to Aramoana wharf. Maritime NZ Southern compliance manager Michael Vredenburg said concerns were raised when an uncertified vessel was used in an attempt to tow a barge carrying a digger to Aramoana wharf on Thursday. […] DCC staff are working with alternative contractors that have the appropriate Maritime New Zealand certification.
Read more
Channel 39 Published on Dec 15, 2016
Wharf demolition delayed
The restoration of the Aramoana Pilot Wharf was delayed yesterday after a barge ran aground in Waipuna bay.
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“It’s been a long battle but the trust is committed to the goal of seeing it fully restored for future generations.” –Tracey Densem
### ODT Online Fri, 16 Dec 2016
Wharf demolition delayed
By Shawn McAvinue
Nature granted the Aramoana wharf a day’s reprieve from demolition. Dunedin City Council parks and recreation acting group manager Tom Dyer said demolition work on the wharf was put off yesterday and contractors hoped to start today. “High winds prevented the barge, which is needed as a base for the removal operation, from being installed alongside the wharf.”
Read more
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UNFORGIVEABLE DCC
At a council meeting on Monday, council staff agreed to work with the trust on the wharf restoration. The “hasty” council staff told the trust members about the planned demolition on Tuesday.
### ODT Online Thu, 15 Dec 2016
Trust disappointed over wharf demolition
By Shawn McAvinue
The demolition of the Aramoana wharf starts today to the “disappointment and surprise” of the trust aiming to restore it. Dunedin City Council recreation planning and facilities manager Jendi Paterson said the first part of the work involved separating the main portion of the wharf structure and walkway from the beach. “We are doing this to ensure there is every chance the walkway can be salvaged as per the wishes of the [Aramoana Pilot Wharf Restoration Charitable Trust].”
Read more
Trust member Tracey Densem said the wharf demolition was “devastating”. The wharf had heritage value and should be repaired in its present location, she said. […] “It’s an unrealistic timeline for the trust to work to – it’s hardly an example of a positive council-community partnership.”
█ DCC Report: Aramoana Wharf Removal (12.12.16)
Department: Parks and Recreation
● Structural condition and risk assessment : MWH
● Photographic assessment : MWH
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### channel39.co.nz June 9, 2015 – 6:43pm
Historic wharf to be restored
A forgotten civic asset is due to be restored, thanks to the gumption of a local community group. The Aramoana League has support from the city council to revive a recreational wharf. And that’ll ensure a historic link is maintained.
█ Video
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### channel39.co.nz October 14, 2014 – 7:00pm
Aramoana wharf restoration gets a vote of support
It’s good news for the Aramoana League, which has long fought for the restoration of the Aramoana wharf. The Dunedin City Council’s community and environment committee has voted to support the project. That means the council will likely spend several thousand dollars on wharf assessments, and take over its future maintenance.
█ Video
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Calvin Oaten
October 14, 2014 at 3:22 pm
Just a few dollars for the archaeological assessment says Dave Cull and 13 of his councillors. This so the project can move on to the next stage. That, I believe will be the raising of the $100,000 expected to cost for the reinstatement of the Aramoana wharf. What? That is not a wharf, it is a jetty, which has no practical use ever since the days when it served as an embarkation point for harbour pilots to meet incoming ships, and to service the light at the end of the spit. I venture to suggest that 98% of our population are unaware of its existence. The fundraising will founder, the DCC money spent will be wasted, lest it comes up with the shortfall and completes the job. Then what? Nobody will use it except the very odd curious ‘boatie’. Another dopey waste of money which the council doesn’t have. Dave Cull just doesn’t get it, the town is broke. The thirteen are no better, only Cr Vandervis has the sense to know a ‘purple pig’ when he sees it.
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### ODT Online Tue, 14 Oct 2014
DCC backs restoring Aramoana wharf
By Debbie Porteous
The Dunedin City Council has indicated its support for a community project to restore the Aramoana wharf. It has also agreed to pay for an archaeological assessment of the wharf so the project can move on to the next stage, and a heritage impact assessment, if necessary, after that.
Read more
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### ODT Online Mon, 13 Oct 2014
Vision to recycle wharf
By Debbie Porteous
….Efforts by the Aramoana League to restore the 105-year-old 22m-long wharf continue on a new track after it acknowledged little of the structure could be retained, given its state of deterioration. The league is now working on a project to build a 10m wharf, using as much of the existing material as possible.
Read more
To be tabled at the DCC Community and Environment Committee meeting today:
Report – CEC – 13/10/2014 (PDF, 4.5 MB)
The Aramoana League’s Draft Proposal to Restore the Former Aramoana Pilots Wharf
[ends]
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
This post is offered in the public interest.
What if? Dunedin... 
How many resignations (many pending) will it take for the idioti who run the city to understand that Brexit and Donald Trump is at the forefront of the people getting what they want, not the wishes of bureaucrats desperate to justify their immoral salaries.
The people want to restore the wharf and they are prepared to pay for it.
Democracy will rule. DCC get on board or you might be water boarded or worse still placed in the stocks- a most efficient penalty.
Latest details via report to full Council meeting on 12 December – also added to post at top of thread:
DCC Report: Aramoana Wharf Removal (12.12.16)
Department: Parks and Recreation
● Structural condition and risk assessment : MWH
● Photographic assessment : MWH
F***wit City
It just gets worse, thanks to the ‘destruction is our game’ DCC.
“DCC had been keeping stakeholders updated on the work undertaken”
Stakeholders !!!! Whoever uses this word ‘officially’ is so far up their own backside.
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Sat, 7 Jan 2017
ODT: Tauranga firm dismantling Aramoana pilot wharf
A landing craft operated by a Tauranga-based company is being used to help dismantle parts of the Aramoana pilot wharf and part of a walkway leading to it. Dunedin City Council […] confirmed yesterday that the company, Bay Underwater Services Ltd, had begun work to “deconstruct” the wharf on Thursday. It was estimated it would take five days, weather-dependent. Cont/
Stake Holders!
I wish they would do their job, plant them in the ground, attach the silly buggers making these decisions and light the fires!
Sometimes elfinsafety requires action that’s not merely prompt, it’s so precipitate one wonders about motivations, that old cui bono question.
All around Otago potential killers, potential inferno-starters – Aurora’s infrastructure – is “monitored”. These are potential because although the ones still there have not killed anyone or started a fire their “identical siblings” have.
Not monitored by 24/7 personnel with firefighting and resus gear, you know.
A kids’ playground slide that had caused no strife for 41 years was instantly condemned because in its 42nd year someone might get hurt. Destruction of it has been halted pending expensive (and unnecessary, on fair assessment of long record) alterations.
Aramoana Pilot Wharf – record of actual harm? Expectation of benefit to community by getting rid of it? Cui bono?
What’s the hurry? Cui bono?
Where are the priorities? Cui – WTF?
ODT 9.1.16 (page 6)
ODT 14.1.17 (page 28)
The wharf’s rushed deconstruction and removal is a council [staff] operational matter on Health & Safety grounds – the “North Island company” has already started if not completed the work. I’m surprised the ODT editor did not offer the following minute information in reply to M. Gardner. Clearly, councillors orchestrated demolition (according to the sainted staff report) but failed to remove the wharf altogether.
Unconfirmed Minutes of the Council meeting held 12 Dec 2016:
[excerpt]
Link: https://infocouncil.dunedin.govt.nz/Open/2016/12/CNL_20161212_MIN_505.htm#PDF2_ReportName_9058
“Injury rate of zero over a century or more” – quick, demolish without delay!
This expensive act of vandalism brought to you by Solutions 2 Nonproblems R Us, the safety elves behind protecting children from alcoholism by persecuting Wests.
See also our mindblowing spoilsport action regarding children’s slide.
Harm could happen. Harm will definitely happen to most of us in the course of life outside the cottonwool wrap, but thanks to the tireless work of Solutions 2 Nonproblems R Us, there should always be someone other than carelessness and the oldfashioned “shit happens” to hold responsible and put through the regulatory mincer.
We make it possible for you to make any adverse effect however unlikely, a major pain for someone else! And another separate (or possibly not all that separate) “someone else” benefits!
We’re a proud bunch. Even when we screw up e.g. South Dunedin cycleways we seldom apologise and are in no hurry to put things back the way they were – whatever we did it’s now YOUR problem.
We’ll put out a press release. That’s the other thing we do.
Given so much of the wharf has been removed the work to come is not technically a ‘restoration’ – we instead look forward to a rebuild, maybe using some salvaged materials.
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Thu, 9 Feb 2017
ODT: Wharf barely remains, but hope lives on
The removal of dangerous parts of the Aramoana pilot wharf is complete and the restoration project is “moving ahead”. Council recreation planning and facilities manager Jendi Paterson said the council-contracted work to remove the unsafe parts of the wharf finished on January 9 and cost $46,080. The decking and material situated above the seabed was salvaged and stored by the council at a facility at Tahuna Park at no cost. Cont/
Forty Six Thousand!!
Good god, an unemployed bloke with a diving certificate could have done it for a few crayfish and an ounce of weed.
A little more required than one diver at that marine site Gurglars.
Also – this website does not traffic.
Can you say the same for all who read it, though?
Broad church, and so on. Eh?
Limited control. Like thumbs in ears. And total disinterest to the point of reporting.
Seaweed your competitors in the Olympian sport of jumping to conclusions!
At Facebook:
Thu, 23 Feb 2017
ODT: Aramoana wharf rebuild plan runs into opposition
By Chris Morris
Conservationists are calling on the Dunedin City Council to pull its support for the rebuilding of the Aramoana wharf. The wharf, considered “unsafe and deteriorating”, was partially demolished late last year, after the council approved a restoration plan being pursued by the Aramoana Pilot Wharf Restoration Charitable Trust. The approval required a Department of Conservation concession and the trust to hit its fundraising target, of about $120,000, to rebuild the wharf. Cont/
Tue, 11 Apr 2017
ODT: No word on use of Aramoana fund
By Chris Morris
A trustee responsible for the Aramoana Relief Trust fund is refusing to say what will happen to the money, after a final payout was delayed amid criticism from victims and their families. The fund’s final $47,000 was due to be split equally between three final recipients, including the trust behind the Aramoana wharf restoration project, by March 31. The Otago Daily Times has since confirmed the payments have not been made, but questions about the delay have been dismissed by trustee Paul Hudson. Mr Hudson, a former Dunedin city councillor, said all details of the final payout were “confidential and a matter for the trustees. It’s not for public broadcast.” Cont/
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Tue, 4 Apr 2017
ODT Editorial: Fund interlude welcome
OPINION A state of limbo exists over the disbursement of a fund set up to help the victims of the 1990 Aramoana killings. The Aramoana Relief Trust fund was established in the days after gunman David Gray killed 13 people in the small coastal settlement of Aramoana, near Dunedin, on November 13, 1990. An initial appeal raised about $300,000 through national donations, which was to be used to provide financial support to victims and their families, and to help rehabilitate the community. The money was held by Dunedin City Treasury, a Dunedin City Council-owned company, and is administered by the fund’s trustees. Last week it was revealed the trustees planned to wind up the fund and distribute its final $47,000 to three recipients: the Aramoana wharf project, the Aramoana League and Victim Support.
Reaction from victims, their families and Aramoana residents has been divided on several fronts. These include concerns about consultation, the payout recipients and potential conflicts of interest of trustees, some of whom are also involved with organisations set to benefit from the final payout. Given the nature of the issue, the temporary hiatus is welcome. It could provide an opportunity to investigate the issues thoroughly and sensitively. Cont/
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Sat, 1 Apr 2017
ODT: More question closing fund
By Chris Morris
More people have come forward criticising plans to close the Aramoana Relief Trust fund, but it appears it has already been granted a temporary reprieve. […] Dunedin City Council chief executive Sue Bidrose confirmed late yesterday the money had not been transferred, and there was no immediate plan to do so.
….The decision [to close the fund] was criticised by Chiquita Holden, a survivor of the massacre, who told ODT Insight donors’ intentions, and the views of some victims, were being overlooked. Mr Hudson denied that, saying “senior family members” among victims and their families had since been contacted, and had endorsed the trustees’ plans. But Ms Holden’s concerns were backed by two other people with connections to the massacre, who contacted the Otago Daily Times after reading of the trustees’ plans on Thursday. Cont/
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Thu, 30 Mar 2017
ODT: Use of relief fund questioned
By Chris Morris – Dunedin Insight
Time is catching up on a fund designed to ease the pain for survivors of the Aramoana massacre. But critics say donors’ final wishes are being overlooked. […] Chiquita Holden does not want to see any more hurt in the place she still calls home. The 36-year-old is a child of Aramoana and a survivor of its darkest day, when gunman David Gray claimed the lives of 13 people on November 13, 1990. Ms Holden survived being shot, but lost two of those closest to her – her father, Garry, and sister, Jasmine. Cont/