6 September 2024, Devonport Flagstaff by Devonport Flagstaff

Woodall Park skatepark plan advances... p4

September 6, 2024

Claystore wall may need costly repair... p3

Rugby bond brings biker back to NSRC... p14-15

Marina wants public excluded from popular breakwater

Bayswater Marina Ltd is attempting to permanently block public access to its breakwater.

The original consents for Bayswater Marina – issued more than 25 years ago – granted public access to the 900m outer breakwater.

But a resource consent application to vary the consent, excluding public access and use of the popular breakwater, was lodged with Auckland Council last week.

The breakwater has been closed to the public since December 2023, after a drowning near the marina.

“The dangers [of the breakwater] were highlighted at the end of 2023 when the marina team had the tragic experience of assisting authorities following the drowning of a man in the waters outside the marina,”

To page 2

Space invasion at Bayswater

Take me to your teacher... Year 6 Bayswater School student Stella Anderson gets in character as an alien at the school’s dress-up day for Book Week. Photo spread, pages 16-17.

Cutting access will deprive public of enjoyment – councillor

From page 1

the consent application said. “Although the circumstances of the drowning are not known, the marina cannot rule out that he fell off the marina breakwater. Staff took the decision to close the breakwater and pier gates to the public.”

Bayswater Marina then commissioned a health and safety investigation which found that under the Health and Safety at Work Act, the marina was responsible for users of the breakwater.

However, council’s environmental monitoring team, following an investigation, ruled that the marina’s consent conditions did not allow for permanent closure of the breakwater. Council sent a letter to Bayswater Marina in July 2024 saying it was in breach of its consent and must either open the breakwater or apply to amend it.

The public breakwater was effectively compensation for the privatisation of public seabed to create the marina. It has been extremely well used by locals and visitors alike as both a popular fishing spot and a long walk out into the Auckland Harbour.

North Shore councillor Chris Darby said: “I expect there to be considerable public interest in a variation to the consent condition that provides public recreational access to and enjoyment of the outer breakwater.

“Taking away the opportunity to stroll along the breakwater and fish from the breakwater would be a considerable loss of enjoyment for thousands.” Darby said the application “to deny public access warrants full notification to the public.”

Briefs

New courts consent

A building consent has been granted for three new tennis courts at Belmont Park Racquets Club. The club has around $120,000 of the estimated $500,000 cost of the project and is now seeking grants to make up the shortfall.

Bowling club lease agreed

The lease for the repurposed defunct Devonport Bowling Club has been agreed and signed by the North Shore cricket and rugby clubs. Once the council has countersigned the lease, plans to develop the building into a women’s changing facility will proceed.

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Closure sought... the breakwater at Bayswater Marina

Boardwalk access too dangerous – report

The potential for serious or fatal injuries to casual public visitors from slips or trips is too high to allow the breakwater to reopen, according to a health and safety report prepared for Bayswater Marina.

“Based on this risk assessment, the gates controlling access to the piers and the breakwater should remain locked to exclude casual public visitors,” the April 2024 report by Impac Consulting says.

Exposure to slips and trips on marine structures is a more significant hazard than exposure to slips and trips in other environments, the report says.

“Evidence of the level of risk is proved by the recent number of serious and fatal

injuries associated with marinas in New Zealand and overseas.” Six people have drowned off marinas in New Zealand since 2014. In the United States, studies showed 107 people had drowned off marinas from 2008 to 2017, the report says.

Signs were Bayswater Marina’s only option for raising public awareness of marine-structure hazards.

The marina is exposed to swells from several directions. “Even swells of less than one metre result in significant and unpredictable movement of the breakwater... Auckland’s variable weather conditions also mean that swells can increase suddenly,” the report says.

Wall behind Claystore might need costly repair

The retaining wall behind the heritage Claystore building in Devonport has structural issues that could cost $500,000 to $1 million to fix.

The problem raises questions over whether the $1.2 million the local board intends to spend to upgrade the Claystore, which is used as a community workshop, will need to be diverted to shore up the wall.

The unexpected potential cost could also mean other local projects will be delayed.

Auckland Council area operations manager Sarah Jones told a Devonport-Takapuna Local Board workshop an engineering survey done prior to work on the upgrade had highlighted issues that would need fixing.

The retaining wall drops down from public path Abbotsford Way, to the council-owned Claystore site at 27 Lake Rd. It forms part of the rear interior wall of the Claystore and extends either side of it.

“It’s not necessarily our responsibility,” board chair Toni van Tonder said at the workshop, mentioning possible cost sharing for wall repairs with Eke Panuku or Auckland Transport (AT).

After the meeting, van Tonder told the Flagstaff the board was expecting an update from council staff within a month so it could make decisions. “Probably the [wall] work needs to be done before any other work.”

Claystore trustee and treasurer Martin Ford said its board would meet this week to discuss the implications. A council project manager had emailed him just the other day to advise that budgets needed to be relooked at.

Plans for the users to move out of the Claystore in summer for up to six months to allow for the upgrade were now “all up in the air”. Ford understood council already had a resource consent in train. It had also indicated it would find somewhere to store

machinery during the planned work.

The group was keen to see the building renovated. It was considering fundraising for extra work of its own to update inside.

Much of the council’s planned work was on the mezzanine level and its access, he said. The workshop uses the ground floor.

Regular volunteer Steve Wilson showed the Flagstaff a drain that runs inside the building in front of the wall. A pump at the side of the building helps clear water from the drain.

In recent months he said two separate groups had visited to look at the wall and to try to work out where drainage pipes ran. A bore test had been done, he said.

“You’ve got 13 people with clipboards... they don’t talk to anyone down here.”

Another issue he pointed to was at the western end of the Claystore, where he understood council was considering putting a courtyard and a lift to the mezzanine level.

“The water comes through there, underneath the fence and across the car-park.”

Upgrade under threat... Claystore volunteers (from left) Steve Wilson, Stefan Fortuin and supervisor Bram Water, with the concrete retaining wall at rear.

Skatepark project progresses to consultation

Consultation on a controversial new skatepark planned for Woodall Park will start this month.

The findings will influence the facility’s design and ways of mitigating residents’ concerns about issues such as noise.

Auckland Council will host an open day and run online surveys about the plans, project manager Xavier Choi told the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board last month.

Woodall Park is the preferred site of 19 investigated across the Devonport peninsula, due to its proximity to other sporting facilities, accessibility, size, and visibility.

The proposed 1000-square-metre skatepark would be at the southwest edge of the park, next to the pedestrian path and BMX pump track.

The local board has a budget of $946,000 for the project.

The facility’s size could change after consultation, along with its location within Woodall Park, a council staff member told the board. Draft concept designs for the park are expected to be completed early next year, when they will be shown to the board, along with collated feedback.

Construction is planned for September to December next year.

The new park is intended as a replacement for the Ngataringa Skatepark, which will become unusable in the future, due to the land subsiding.

However, drainage works done in 2022 at a cost of $250,000 are expected to allow the Ngataringa facility to remain useable for several more years.

Like Ngataringa, Woodall Park is a closed landfill, but initial testing indicates the ground can support a new facility.

Council staff have recommended more detailed contamination and bearing-capac-

Preferred location... Consulation is beginning over a proposed 1000-squaremetre skatepark at Woodall Park. This would be away from existing tennis courts (out of shot further west down Wairoa Rd) and close to the pumptrack which is under trees.

ity investigations.

The local board was told a Woodall Park facility would likely be insurable.

Board member George Wood said the Pasifika groups who used the reserve during the summer should be informed about the project.

Chair Toni van Tonder agreed, asking council to reach out to local boards across the city so groups that visited could be informed about the consultation.

Wood said the skatepark could eat into the

space groups have for playing kilikiti. Both Wood and member Gavin Busch questioned why a new skatepark was necessary when the Ngataringa facility was still useable.

Busch suggested building a small facility for younger skaters at Woodall Park would be a cheaper option.

Wood was the only board member to oppose the project progressing.

He said a skatepark would encroach on green space and that building on an old landfill would be a problem.

Views split on existing and planned skate facilities

The use of the Woodall Park courts as a temporary skate facility has upset neighbours who have witnessed antisocial behaviour and vandalism.

Cameron Smythe, who lives near the park, told the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board skaters had left broken glass at the courts.

Skaters and the ramps they had installed had taken over the facility and their “intimidating behaviour” meant his daughters couldn’t use the courts to practise netball, he said.

Smythe, a civil engineer, also raised concerns about the viability of building a skate facility at Woodall Park, as the proposed location would be on top of a sewer and water main.

“Both of those networks won’t survive additional loading associated with the

concrete park.”

He said the Ngataringa facility is well used and in good condition, and that the community is in more need of other facilities, such as a swimming pool.

Dave Casey of the Devonport Skatepark Advisory Group spoke in support of a new skatepark in the proposed area, saying it would create less noise than skating at the courts, as it was further away from homes. The smooth concrete surface would also be quieter than the plywood ramps in use at the courts.

The highly visible proposed location would reduce the likelihood of antisocial behaviour, he said.

The new location would also encourage parents to bring their children, as it was closer to amenities like toilets and being out in the open was safer.

Casey told the board skate equipment and surfaces at the courts were vandalised in May.

Damage included the removal of metal plates from the ramps, making them unusable, and cement and pebbles being spread nearby.

The message “Hey f*** head, stay off our court!” was written on one of the obstacles.

Local board chair Toni van Tonder recommended that council remove the ramps from the courts now there was a time-frame to deliver a separate new permanent skate facility.

At a later workshop, van Tonder said she would like to see pickleball lines and a netball goal circle painted on the courts, after the ramps were removed. This repeats a request made last year to widen use.

ASB axes ATM and 120-year link with Devonport

The ASB Bank is withdrawing completely from Devonport on 11 September – closing its foyer and removing the ATM from the site.

Bank management said the closure was due to the end of its lease on its former premises at 21 Victoria Rd, and low use of the ATM.

The closure of the ATM marks the end of ASB’s 120-year association with Devonport.

The future of an historic painting inside –which is believed to have been commissioned by the ASB – is unclear.

ASB said the James Turkington painting of a Victorian street scene (pictured, right) was now the responsibility of the building’s owners, Peninsula Capital.

The building was one of 15 snapped up by Peninsula Capital last year.

Turkington was a prominent mural painter from the 1930s until the 1960s, producing many well-known works around New Zealand.

The only ATMs left in Devonport are outside New World and across the supermarket car-park at the Post Shop and stationer. ASB’s nearest ATM will soon be at its Takapuna branch.

Another boat ramp removed

Part of the Blair Park boat ramp at Stanley Point is to be removed by Auckland Council.

“One piece is almost floating away,” area operations manager Sarah Jones told the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board last week.

Board chair Toni van Tonder expressed some concern about the removal when it was mentioned at a workshop on the local works programme, saying: “It doesn’t get a huge amount of use, but we are losing our coastal access.”

The news of removal followed the loss of the ramp beside boat sheds near the Navy Base entrance on Queens Pde, she said.

Blair Park is accessed from Stanley Pt Rd, at the end of its eastern fork. The ramp is downhill from the park and used mostly by kayakers and a few swimmers.

Jones said later that the Blair Park ramp, built in the early 1950s, was initially damaged in storms last year. “Part of the boat ramp is being removed because it further collapsed recently and is a health and safety hazard,” she said.

Council staff made an operational decision to fence it off last October and, last month, to remove a section of the ramp.

“The local board will decide if and when it gets rebuilt,” Jones said.

Going, going, gone... Banking in Devonport

The ASB closed its branch on 19 March 2021, marking the end of 120 years of banks operating branches in Devonport.

A decade ago, all the major banks had branches in the town centre.

ASB opened in 1901. The Bank of New Zealand ran a branch from 1913 to 2018. ANZ operated from 1951 to

2019, while Westpac was in Victoria Rd from 1991 to 2020, having originally set up as Trust Bank, before it was amalgamated into Westpac.

All the banks cited increasing use of online banking and declining numbers of customers using branches as the primary reason for closures.

Bayswater ground works disrupt late-season football

North Shore United has been forced to move football trainings and games off Bayswater Park at short notice after a communication breakdown over long-planned field-preparation work.

The Bayswater ground has been closed since Monday, with three weeks of the football season still to run.

United has had to move training for all 44 of its junior, youth and senior community teams

to Devonport Domain (senior) and Stanley Bay Park (youth and junior) for the rest of the season.

Youth and senior teams have had home games, which would have been played at Bayswater, rescheduled to be played at grounds in Forrest Hill and Northcote. Auckland Council says it told Northern Regional Football (NRF) last November that Bayswater Park would be unusable from 1 September.

But NRF says Bayswater’s closure was only confirmed by email on 22 August. United teams learned only last week that council had advised the park would be out of action.

North Shore United club manager Stephen Millham said the club would have preferred to have more notice to prepare for the disruption. Goalposts had to be shifted to other grounds for training sessions. The work at Bayswater Park is to prepare the fields for cricket in the summer.

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Flood drenches gallery, wrecks recording studio

A downpour flooded the Depot arts venue in Devonport on Saturday, saturating artworks and severely damaging the facility’s main sound studio.

Roof and interior-wall repairs will be needed to the council-owned building, after water gushed down its western interior wall.

Gallery worker Juno Wangford, who witnessed the deluge around lunchtime on 31 August, told the Flagstaff water suddenly flooded down the gallery after “exploding” from large bubbles behind the interior paint, which were apparently created during overnight rain.

When Wangford first arrived at work and opened the door in the morning, the fire alarm triggered. A check found water in the fire exit and electrical-services space to the west side of the main gallery, next to the Devonport Community House.

Wangford said she mopped up a few puddles of water inside the gallery before opening for the day. She had noticed blisters in the paint, about two-thirds of the way up the wall. The inundation later happened quickly.

“I was listening to the rain outside and all of a sudden I heard a loud gushing noise and all of the bubbles in the wall had popped out and it got onto the artworks.”

She called Depot director Amy Saunders and was relieved when her own mother Lizzy, Devonport artist Celia Walker and others involved in the current exhibition turned up to help. She did not initially realise the sound studio to the rear had been flooded as well, but later saw its ceiling was bowed under the pressure of water.

The mixing desk and other equipment was left waterlogged.

Sound studio manager Noah Page is hoping to salvage hard drives of recorded music, which been put into rice to dry out, a process that could take a week or so before the result is known. The studio equipment was insured. Saunders spent Monday morning on site assessing the damage and clean-up plan, while electricians worked on restoring power to the building. “Ironically, it’s the Sponge City show on there now,” she noted.

She said flooding, which in parts was several inches deep, was fortunately limited to one side of the building, sparing the shop, offices and a secondary recording studio.

The problem was “out of the blue”. The building had not been flooded in the severe weather events early last year.

Artists involved in the Sponge City exhibition – which explores the impacts of climate change – plan to incorporate footage of the water gushing down the wall in their show.

On Monday their work was spread on trestle tables, hastily set up in the gallery to provide a place for the paper prints to dry out.

The gallery was expected to reopen on Wednesday this week.

Saunders expected the building would need

When life imitates art... Depot director Amy Saunders beneath bubbled wall paint in the flooded gallery where an exhibition called Sponge City addresses resilience against the adverse weather effects of climate change

to close later for repairs. Decisions would rest with Auckland Council, she said.

The flood was a particular blow after work had been done to smarten up the venue’s interior, open a shop and install acoustic fins to the main gallery’s ceiling to enhance recordings of performances.

On the Friday night before the flood, the New Zealand String Quartet played a soldout concert, which was filmed and recorded by Page.

“Everyone was on such a high,” Saunders

said. Fortunately, the concert recording had been uploaded to the cloud.

Saunders expected the main sound studio would be the part of the venue most impacted by the flood, as its equipment, lighting and ceiling were all damaged, though some back-up equipment was available in its second studio.

She understood weathertightness work had been done on the building a few years ago, before her arrival and said she was not aware of any pending maintenance issues.

Pole smash cuts power in Belmont

Power was lost to a chunk of Belmont on Monday morning, after a car smashed into a pole on Lake Rd in the early hours.

The accident occurred between the gates of Takapuna Grammar School and Belmont Intermediate School around 3am. Police said a person was taken into custody and enquiries were ongoing. No injuries were reported.

Vector coned off the scene to allow for electricity line work. Two-way traffic flow continued but, with lanes narrowed, traffic was slow throughout the morning. The power pole required replacement.

The power outage stretched from south of Eversleigh Rd to Egremont St, affecting properties on both sides of Lake Rd.

Welcome to Tam Dental

Tam Dental Group has always been synonymous with Excellence in Restorative and Minimally Invasive Dentistry. We are proud to have been part of the Devonport community for the last 6 years. Tam Dental Devonport has a focus on restorative and cosmetic dentistry. Dr Tam has cherry-picked her associates and hygienists to serve both the Devonport and Newmarket practices.

Dr. Shu-Jin Ee, BDS (Otago)

Dr Shu-Jin Ee was born and raised in Malaysia. She moved to Dunedin to study and fell in love with this beautiful country that she now calls home. Shu Jin graduated from the University of Otago in 2015. After spending 6 wonderful years working in Wanganui and Rotorua, she made the move to Auckland for a lifestyle change. She enjoys all aspects of dentistry and is very passionate about delivering high quality patient-oriented care. She believes being able to smile confidently makes a huge difference in someone’s life and those around them.

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Jurka also has previously worked as an Oral Health Therapist for Lakes DHB as well as a clinical educator at Auckland University of Technology in the Oral Health Programme.

Dr. Lillian Hsu

Dr Lillian Hsu trained as a dentist at the University of Otago. She has a gentle, caring nature and strives to deliver quality care and experience to all her clients. She is patient and engages her patients in all aspects of treatment planning as part of her detailed approach to comprehensive care. Lillian moved to Auckland as a child and did most of her schooling in New Zealand.

She is fluent in English and Mandarin.

Kirsty Jennings

Kirsty Jennings (Hygienist) is a very experienced Dental Hygienist, having graduated from the first programme offered in New Zealand.

She then moved to Wellington and worked with both specialist Periodontist and general practices until moving to Auckland in 2015.

She believes that a dental hygiene appointment should be an enjoyable experience, she enjoys creating a safe and comfortable space for each person. Her favourite part of the job is getting to know her patients and building a relationship while encouraging them through their dental journey. Kirsty loves working with a great team to deliver quality care for you.

We’d love to see you, pop in when you’re next passing.

OPENING HOURS: Monday – Thursday: 8.00am to 4.30pm | Saturday: 8.30am to 5.00pm

For a great cause... (clockwise from top left) , Declan (8), Tabatha and Violet (6) Murray; Ginny Palmer and son Ollie (8); Megan Franklin (left) and Anita Stewart; and Nic Russell speaking to swimmers before the plunge

Chilly at Cheltie! Swimmers take plunge for charity

Around 100 Devonport swimmers took to the water at Cheltenham Beach last month as part of the national Winter Swim Challenge fundraiser for charity Kenzie’s Gift, which helps young people affected by serious illness or grief.

Kenzie’s Gift founder Nic Russell launched the 25 August annual event, telling the swimmers, “You’re going to be getting chilly but you will have a warm heart for what you are doing.”

They were part of a nationwide initiative.

Groups took the plunge at various locations around the country at 11am.

You first... Kenzie’s Gift founder Nic Russell leads the dippers into the water at Cheltenham Beach

Quick dip... Nina Craighead (11) near right and Milly Seaburg (10)

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Catching up with

Shore bond draws biker back into the ruggerhood

Ethan McMullan left Devonport and quit rugby before going through difficult times that led to membership of a bike gang. He tells Rob Drent about rejoining the clubmates he grew up with.

Stepping into the boots of North Shore rugby captain Donald Coleman might have been a life-changing decision for his mate Ethan McMullan.

Born in Tauranga and moving Devonport aged 5, McMullan played for Shore for several years after leaving school.

He then headed south to Te Awamutu and later Matamata, where, going through difficult times, he joined the Filthy Few motorcycle gang. Such was his commitment, he had ‘Filthy Few Matamata’ tattooed on his forehead and neck.

He was with the group for four years, but he came back to Auckland after his partner of five years became pregnant..

“Donald heard I was back in Auckland and called me up on a Friday night as the premier reserves were short of players for the next day.”

McMullan told Coleman he hadn’t played rugby in six years and didn’t even have a pair of boots.

Fortuitously, Coleman and McMullan had the same foot size, so Coleman could lend him a pair of boots. He was back in Shore’s green and white colours. “I played 80 minutes and got the bug back again,” McMullan says.

He had also been training – sparring and practice bouts – for a bare-knuckle fight. “So I was pretty fit.”

McMullan played out the season as a blindside flanker and received the side’s most committed player award, putting him on the podium at the club’s senior prizegiving, in the company of the club’s top players.

“I was pretty proud of that,” McMullan says, noting that his ancestors, the Wynyard family, had helped found the North Shore Rugby Club 151 years ago.

Now 32, McMullan grew up in Devonport, attending Vauxhall Primary, Belmont Intermediate and Takapuna Grammar School (TGS), playing for North Shore from J6 level.

True colours... Ethan McMullan, fresh from work, in a hat from the firm that employs him and a shirt from the club he’s returned to

He had two years in the TGS first XV, mainly as a prop. A rugged player, he had a couple of trials for North Harbour age-group teams without winning selection.

Leaving school, he played for Shore’s under-19, under-21 and senior C sides before graduating to the premier reserves. A shot of him scoring the winning try in the premier reserves’ 2016 North Harbour competition win appeared in the Flagstaff.

He moved to Te Awamutu to take up a plumbing apprenticeship and played for

Pirongia seniors for a couple of years, but retired after a shoulder injury. “I didn’t want to get injured further because of work.”

After his marriage broke up in 2018, he moved to Matamata, where he had friends, some of whom was in the Filthy Few. McMullan, who had always loved motorbikes and already had a Harley-Davidson, joined up.

He says the authorities, media and the public miss the fact each gang is different. “The Filthy Few is an old-school motorcycle

Back in green and white… McMullan cheers the North Shore premiers onto the field ahead of a game against Takapuna (left) and with his mate Donald Coleman celebrating Shore premiers’ 2024 championship win. Below: Scoring the winning try for Shore premier reserves in 2016

club – it’s about bikes and brotherhood,” he says. “I was going through a rough time... they were there for me and I knew some people there.”

In some respects, the camaraderie found at the Filthy Few was not unlike that of a rugby team. “Instead of playing rugby, we rode motorcycles.”

He remains a Filthy Few member, “but I’m not active,” he says. He now rides a Triumph Daytona 955.

Asked if he regrets getting the Filthy Few tattoo, he says “I don’t regret it. At the time, I did not have a kid and was committed to the club. But it’s become difficult.”

Back in Auckland, potential employers felt they couldn’t send a worker with facial gang tattoos out into the public. “And I can understand that.”

But linking back up with Shore rugby proved a saviour.

Back in his post-school days he flatted in Hauraki with teammates including Charles Pettifer, Jackson Garea and Kahu Karanui.

At North Shore this year, he found Garea was now the under-85kgs coach and his

younger brother Gene still playing at senior level. McMullan got talking to the pair’s father, Brett, who owns a landscaping company, in which Jackson is also involved. “He and Jackson decided to give me a chance to work at BGE (Brett Garea Environments).”

He’s been landscaping since, mainly on new-build sites all around Auckland. “I owe them a lot, because I was struggling to find a job and they gave me an opportunity by looking past the tattoos.”

Although he is living in West Auckland with his partner, and two stepdaughters who are settled at schools, the return to Shore has been something of a homecoming. “It’s been awesome, “ McMullan says. “I love it. It’s great to be around the culture of the club.”

McMullan was among the North Shore faithful who paraded the North Harbour championship trophy up Victoria Rd the Sunday after the premiers’ 2024 championship win. “I’m tight with a lot of the players and the club definitely looks after us.”

He’s hoping to play a few more seasons of rugby. “I’m pretty happy at the Bs. We need a few more players – quite a few retired after

the 150th celebrations in 2023. I’m committed to building the team up.”

McMullan is also about to become a father, with a son expected in September. “It’s going to be pretty amazing.”

While he’s had struggles, for the Devonport lad who was first pictured in the Flagstaff jumping off Stanley Bay wharf in 2009 in an act of rebellion against a clampdown on the practice, life is full of promise.

Aliens and astronauts were among the colourful characters at an ‘Out of this World’ costume day to mark Book Week at Bayswater School.

Flights of fancy... (clockwise from left) Year 6 students Maria Greig (left) and Mira Ataseven dressed as an alien cat and wolf; Year 2 students Scottie Charlton (dressed as an alien) and Alex Holt-Lay (astronaut); Zach Wehrle (left) and Vinnie Dahlberg, of Year 6, in the rocket ship they made the night before.

Star performers... (clockwise from above) Year 2 student Skylar Smith; Metua Tatare Kainuku (Year 6) in an astronaut costume, complete with oxygen tanks; brothers Neeson and Kade Maynard (Year 2) in matching Darth Vader outfits; and Year 3 student Ataa Thomas, dressed as an alien, with year 2 Amira Griffiths (Year 2), dressed as the spooky space kook from Scooby-Doo

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A beautiful example of a 1910's family home sitting on a sunny corner site of 407m² flowing onto a north/west generous deck and garden fully fenced for small children and pets. Full of character and charm this traditional three bedroom home has a seperate formal lounge and a stylish kitchen with family room and dining for today's more casual living.

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This is the villa we all admire as we pass by, an attractive character-filled family home that sits proud and elevated in ever popular Cheltenham.

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12:00pm 12 Sep 2024 at 39 Victoria Road, Devonport (unless sold prior)

VIEWING

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Tracey Lawrence 021 1720 681

Trish Fitzgerald 021 952 452

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VIEWING Sat & Sun 1:00-1:30pm

Tracey Lawrence 021 1720 681

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AUCTION

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VIEWING

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By Rob Drent

A concerned reader sent the Flagstaff this picture (below) taken last Sunday of illegal shellfish harvesting at Cheltenham Beach.

The photographer tried to inform the poachers that the activity was against the law, but they claimed they didn’t understand him

The Flagstaff Notes

and continued harvesting.

He then contacted Auckland Council, who referred him to the Ministry of Primary Industries, at which stage he gave up.

As spring turns to summer, the taking of cockles from rahui-protected Cheltenham Beach is only likely to increase.

I wonder if there is a case for the appointment of honorary fisheries officers to be responsible for the beach and the first point of contact for complaint.

The honorary fisheries officer system seems to work well in outlying coastal communities around New Zealand.

Bayswater Marina’s resource consent application to close its breakwater to public access should be publicly notified, and then declined.

Of course risks exist for structures alongside water. But Auckland has something like 3000 km of coastline, with numerous wharves and jetties and the like easily accessible to the public.

At Victoria and Torpedo Bay wharves in Devonport, local residents and tourists alike can walk right to the edge, with the potential for falling into the water.

Obviously, beaches and coastal routes such as those around the shore at North Head and from Narrow Neck to Takapuna aren’t fenced off.

Bayswater Marina should perhaps start

AFRICA BY RAIL

with more signage and the provision of rescue apparatus such as lifebuoys as first steps to improve safety.

Public access to the coastline needs to be protected.

So the removal of part of the boat ramp at Blair Park at Stanley Point, is more disturbing news. It follows the Auckland Council decision two years ago not to renew the boat ramp on Queens Pde along from the Naval Base, leaving nearby boat-storage locker users high and dry.

The mystery of the public clock missing from the corner of Albert and Victoria Rds (below) has been solved. It is being rebuilt by Auckland Transport’s maintenance team.

The casing was heavily corroded inside, and the mechanism no longer reliable.

It’s expected the revamped clock will be back in place this month.

Experience the charm and sophistication of a bygone era on this exclusive hosted journey from Johannesburg to Victoria Falls, onboard the exquisitely restored Rovos Rail Johannesburg to Victoria Falls • Hosted ex Auckland • 10 days, departs 28 August 2025 •

Fresh shoots nurtured for landmark lavender garden

A prominent lavender garden at the entrance to Devonport is being replaced with fresh plants.

The lavender bushes at the front of St Francis de Sales and All Souls, on Albert Rd, are more than 40 years old, in poor condition and suffered damage in the floods of early 2023.

The church’s gardening group, St Joseph’s Guild, is replacing the old, brittle lavender with plants grown from cuttings from the original bushes, which have been propagated over winter.

St Francis and All Souls parishioner and St Joseph’s Guild member Jeremy Fleming said the new plantings kept the historical continuity of the hedge.

“It’s got a bit of sustainability, a bit of community continuity.”

Fleming said after the lavender is planted, it will take three to four years before it gets to the size of a “decent hedge”.

Temporary fences have been put up while the lavender grows. The planting will take place over the coming weeks, Fleming said.

Continuity... Jeremy Fleming of the St Francis de Sales and All Souls gardening group with one of the lavender plants which will replace the church garden’s

Spring shoots possible

We see business and consumer confidence is slowly beginning to improve as interest rates begin to fall in earnest with nearly 2% of OCR cuts priced in over the next 18mths - this takes out the uncertainty of higher interest rates and an even weaker economic outlook.

No doubt things are still tough out there and unemployment is likely to increase further as weaker business profits ensure further cost cutting......but there is a bit more optimism around some of the more business and agricultural friendly policies and regulations which may encourage more property and business investment.

Banks are holding up the preferred 6mth rates up at 6.85% but beyond that term rates have fallen to 5.99% for 18mth and 3 yrs down to 5.79% - more cuts will follow as the OCR is likely to be cut in both October and November reviews........and into next year!

Contact Mike Simpson on 021 283 8040 or mike.simpson@mortgagesupply.co.nz or contact Richard Trounson on 027 580 1004 or richard.trounson@mortgagesupply.co.nz

Free ferry service

Contact Richard Trounson on 027 580 1004 or richard.trounson@mortgagesupply.co.nz or contact Mike Simpson on 021 283 8040 or mike.simpson@mortgagesupply.co.nz

Now operating every day from 7am between the Maritime Museum and the Viaduct Events Centre.

ekepanuku.co.nz/ferry

New kiln and garden await long-time glassmaker

Devonport resident Lou Pendergrast-Mathieson has since 2014 combined her glassmaking practice with teaching on the North Shore, but Hawke’s Bay is beckoning. Helen Vause reports.

When Lou Pendergrast-Mathieson was 16 years old she was already fascinated by glass with all its sparkle, qualities and possibilities.

She remembers the excitement of attending her first glass auction, where there was an array of “Depression glass” and the teenager anticipated scoring a piece of this distinctive ware that was mass-produced in the 1920s and 30s.

It was the homeware most kids of the 1950s would remember on the family table – heavy butter dishes and jugs or maybe vases in bright clear greens and blues. The lurid shimmer of the “uranium glass” variety was something families loved or hated. And as always, some pieces would become more sought-after than others. To Pendergrast-Mathieson, it was all very beautiful and desirable.

Growing up in Kingsland, she had thought hairdressing might be a career in which to express her creativity. She lasted for about two years before her interest waned.

But after marrying husband Brent and having three daughters, she was drawn to another creative calling as a craftsperson, studying ceramics at Unitec.

“I knew I wanted to make stuff, but without Brent’s support I couldn’t have followed that dream at that stage in my life with three girls at school.”

She needed money to study, so when she signed up at Unitec she also took the chance to take on the running of the campus cafe. In the mornings, she’d drop her daughters at school in the city, pick up a pile of buns from a bakery and roll up her sleeves in the cafe before her other life at Unitec could

In the studio... Glassmaker Lou Pendergrast-Mathieson embellishes much of her work with representations of things found in the garden

come into focus.

For three years she ran a busy and successful operation.“I just did what I had to do to make it happen for me. Looking

back, I wonder how I could have pulled it all together. But somehow it’s what lots of women do – they juggle family and their creative work so that they can have a serious

career in what they want to do.”

While studying ceramics, Pendergrast -Mathieson’s head was soon turned by the glassmakers at Unitec.

When she got up close to the process of making cast-glass pieces, she was hooked.

“It was the process I fell in love with. It became my passion,” she says.

In the tradition of her craft, she uses the lost wax casting method, using a wax mould and the intense heat of the kiln to create glass objects.

“It’s an ancient craft that we’re still practising. The only difference is that we have technology and better tools to work with.”

In travels to the northern hemisphere, she savoured every chance to see the work of some of the famous names of glassmaking.

Her eyes light up at the mention of the French luxury symbol Lalique glass and going to see for herself the astonishing Lalique glass fountain in the forecourt of London’s Savoy Hotel.

She graduated from Unitec in 1998 with a BA in applied arts, majoring in glass. She then completed a postgraduate diploma in teaching at AUT, putting her on a pathway of teaching and practising her craft.

Since 2010, Pendergrast-Mathieson has taught cast-glass skills to adults and children at the Mairangi Arts Centre (MAC) at Mairangi Bay.

She believes the centre may now be one of the only facilities in the country teaching the art of glassmaking. She has taught hundreds of students at the classes she runs three times a week and says many return for further classes to build on their skills.

During winter this year she and her students exhibited in a show, Celebrating Glass

She’s proud of having a hand in the education of many glassmakers.

Her own education owes plenty to the Devonport glassblowers of the 1980s whose

workshop she visited.

The glassblowing studio downstairs at the corner of Church St and King Edward Pde was a widely known showcase for talented artists Peter Raos and Peter Viesnik, who worked fast under pressure, blowing molten glass into beautiful objects.

“The glass blowers of that era were very important to the development of the craft in this country and to our fledgling glass community. Some of them were very generous to me and to others in sharing their time and their skills.

“Unlike a lot of other countries, we don’t have a long tradition in our crafts, or in glass. We need to build our glass community and be aware that we really need to fly the flag for glass in New Zealand.”

“It’s an ancient craft that we’re still practising. The only difference is that we have technology and better tools to work with.”

Alongside teaching, Pendergrast-Mathieson has been making her own work in a little studio adjacent to the MAC main buildings. She sells it through top New Zealand galleries.

Whatever she makes starts with a drawing, she says.

“I like to have pretty things around me,” she says, carving flower details in a large piece of wax that will soon be the mould

for her next piece.

Much of her work is embellished with images taken from the garden.

Artists like herself are currently dealing with a shortage of raw glass material to work with.

Their supply comes from a 150-year-old foundry in Germany, at $40 a kilogram.

But recent disruptions are concerning to the New Zealand glassmaking community, she says.

Not that the issue will bring an end to her own practice. “I can’t imagine myself not making work even if it does get more difficult with age,” she says. “I’m a maker. Brent says I would be really terrible to be around if I wasn’t making things and he’s probably right about that.”

After 14 years at MAC, the end of an era is approaching for Pendergrast-Mathieson, who has been living in Devonport village.

She and Brent, who are well-known among vintage car buffs with their own vehicle collection, have also worked in property management during this time, but they’ve been thinking of swapping cities and establishing another home.

Regular visitors to Hawke’s Bay’s famed Art Deco Festival events, the couple bought a house in Napier following Covid. Next year, they hope to be living there, while returning regularly to Auckland.

“I’m a very keen gardener,” says Pendergrast-Mathieson, looking up from the fine handwork of carving a wax model. “ I can’t wait to start establishing my own garden in Napier.”

She’s also building a studio there and has a deposit down on her next kiln. “I will miss my classes at the art centre and all the people I have worked with on the North Shore, but the time’s right for this change in our lives. And I’ll have much more opportunity in the new studio to make more of my own work.”

Amaia developer refuses to light public path

Developers of the Amaia apartment and hotel complex are refusing to install lighting on a public path and boardwalk at the coastal Esmonde Rd site.

“They don’t think the lighting is particularly useful,” an Auckland Council officer told a dismayed Devonport-Takapuna Local Board, which had requested lighting for the path.

The developer had told council staff it did not consider pathway lighting was necessary because a seven-storey building nearby would provide passive surveillance of the path, the board heard at its August meeting.

It also did not wish to encourage people onto the site after dark.

Board member Mel Powell said this was annoying to hear. “It’s dark at 6pm in winter, when people are coming home.”

Lighting was also not just desirable for surveillance, but to allow for recreation, she said.

Building of the pathway – a condition of KBS Capital’s resource consent – has begun. It is envisaged as a key link connecting planned longer-term walking and cycling routes through to Francis St in Hauraki.

Five years after completion, the path’s maintenance will fall to Auckland Council.

Board member Gavin Busch was concerned about the safety implications of an unlit path.

“This is a pathway that is going to be

vested back to us – the liability will rest with us in five or six years,” he said.

Busch said he felt like the developer was using “weasel words” to avoid putting in the lighting.

The south-facing walkway could become damp and slippery, he suggested, though staff assured the board it would have nonslip surfaces.

“This is a pathway that is going to be vested back to us – the liability will rest with us in five or six years,”

The lighting issue arose when council staff sought the board’s approval for seats, signage and bollards the developer is installing, which will also have to be maintained by council.

The board will have to meet future costs from its allocated operating expenses.

Board chair Toni van Tonder queried why the walkway was not also considered a “hard asset” requiring sign-off like the other items, but council staff said the consent did not require this.

Summing up, van Tonder said: “We are powerless which is annoying.”

The board unanimously decided that KBS Capital should be asked to reconsider the installation of LED strip lighting or other amenity lighting for public safety.

Discussions about the lighting last came up at a board briefing in April, after council consent for the pathway around and through the site was granted in February.

Amaia has been promoted as an urban village with strong connectivity to transport links.

The first building, an apartment block, is almost finished. Work on a hotel block is due to start by the end of the year and take two years to complete.

A major upscaling of the project – with extra blocks up to 16 storeys high – was approved in September last year.

Marketing of remaining dwellings in the initial block of 104 apartments is underway. Apartments are expected to be ready for occupation from September.

Prices start from $799,000 and rise to $999,000 for two-bedroom apartments with a car park. Three-bedroom apartments cost from $1.569 million.

The marketing imagery online shows a design rendition of the first buildings, without those yet to come on the city-facing side of the site.

THE NAVY COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER

NEW CHIEF OF NAVY

The New Chief of Navy is Rear Admiral Garin Golding.

His appointment as Chief of Navy was announced at Parliament on 28 August, alongside the appointments for Commander Joint Forces, Chief of Army and Vice Chief of Defence Force.

He was promoted to Rear Admiral the following day at Defence House in Wellington, and assumed the appointment of Chief of Navy this month. His predecessor, Rear Admiral David Proctor, had relinquished his command on May 11, with Commodore Andrew Brown stepping in as Acting Chief of Navy.

Growing up on the North Shore, RADM Golding is a student of Target Road Primary School, Wairau Intermediate and Glenfield College. RADM Golding joined the Royal New Zealand Navy on 25 January 1988. He took a traditional path through the Navy as a Navigating Officer before taking up a specialisation in diving RADM Golding has been the Commander of the Deployable Joint Inter-Agency Task Force, the Acting Chief of Navy (Strategy and Engagement) and most recently the Maritime Component Commander.

Devonport Naval Base security reminder – for the safety of the community please take care and remain outside the 60-metre perimeter of the Naval Base at all times. This includes when swimming, diving, kayaking, fishing and sailing.

Rear Admiral Garin Golding holds his Chief of Navy Appointment certificate from Chief of Defence Force Air Marshal Tony Davies.

North Shore Rugby Club junior prizegiving

Attitude Cups

Trevor Lyall Cup (fair play J5–J8, U9), Taiaha Belshaw; Roy Buchanan Memorial (fair play J1–J4, U11, U13), Leni Williams; Colin Harvey Trophy (the energetic player who was always in the game), Paige Burrows; McKenty Family Award (hardest-working forward), Connor O’Neill; Colin Parry Trophy (most loyal to the club), Poppy Porter; Gartside Cup (most conscientious player in the club), Macsen Smith; George Goffin Trophy (loyalty to the club), C J Furlong

Team Cups

NSRFC J4 Hairy Goats: MVP Henry Harrison, MIP George Scarfe, PA Elliot Ashwin; NSRFC J4 Hulks: MVP Archie McRae, MIP Leo Vivian, PA Matty Piper; NSRFC U11G Kahu: MVP Tahlia Bates, MIP Lucia Morrison, PA Charlotte Boys; NSRFC U11G Keas: MVP Isla Lee, MIP Beatrix Service, PA Zoe Mules; NSRFC U11G Kowhai: MVP Scarlett Riddington, MIP Gwenno Smith, PA Georgia Westgate; NSRFC U11G Nikau: MVP Olivia Chapman Smith, MIP Poppy Posa, PA Ella Te Whiu; NSRFC U11G Swifties: MVP Jura Fletcher-McGrevy, MIP Chloe Southwell, PA Isla Fletcher-McGrevy; NSRFC J3 Blue: MVP Henry Watt, MIP Ezra Meredith, PA Seb Tyler; NSRFC J3 Green: MVP Harry Gold, MIP

Ben Logan, PA Jasper Somerville; NSRFC J3 White: MVP Maverick Toeava, MIP Toby Porter, PA Reid Myhre; NSRFC J2 Green: MVP Jake Tuck, MIP Louis Mansell, PA Koh Nagasaki and Te Teira Rehe; NSRFC J2 Red: MVP Isaac Ryder, MIP Theodore Scarfe, PA Lachie Sara and Kash Baskerville; NSRFC U13G Yellow: MVP Juliette James, MIP Anya Dickinson, PA Belle Newman; NSRFC U13G White: MVP Victoria Wright, MIP Frankie Morrison, PA Bess Somerville-Ryan; NSRFC U13G Red: MVP Lucy Clentworth, MIP Noa Ballesty, PA Kate O’Connell; NSRFC U13G Silver: MVP Clementine Powles, MIP Zoe Tilley, PA Annabelle Scovell; NSRFC U13G Green: MVP Indi Holland, MIP Fritha Matthews, PA Natalie Sickling; NSRFC U13G Navy: MVP Lacey Wilson-Moses, MIP Charlotte Avery, PA Arna Tripodi; NSRFC J1 Green: MVP Ben Hindle, MIP Henry Wigram, PA Felix Sinclair and Taitum Ramsay-Reid; NSRFC J1 Blue: MVP Ayden Hong, MIP Alec

The club’s future… junior convenor Matt Hunt, with North Shore Rugby Club’s young players who assembled for last weekend’s prizegiving

Taingahue (AJ), PA Niwa Belshaw and Tom Pearce; NSRFC J6 Nuggets: MVP Eli McRae, MIP Oscar Utting, PA Beau Wilkinson; NSRFC J6 Red Devils: MVP Flynn McLeay, MIP Yahziah Totara Te Retimana, PA Hunter Michelsen; NSRFC J6 Warriors: MVP Kase Clarke, MIP Harrison Wallwork, PA Arlo Kurta- Wharfe; NSRFC U9G Tui: MVP Ryan Clarke, MIP Poppy Everist, PA Tui Toeava; NSRFC U9G Woodman: MVP Tamia Savou, MIP Emily Levien, PA Mefa Kailahi; NSRFC J5 Green Machine: MVP Toby Colhoun, MIP Mac Aitchison, PA Ollie Gold

MVP: Most Valuable Player; MIP: Most Improved Player; PA: Pride Award

Adult Outstanding Service

Ash Cooper; Matt and Anna Hindle; Joel Kistler; Andy and Kylie Kozenof; Matt Manning; Lewis McClintock; Pat McKendry; Lyall McMillan; Andy, Fi, Rhys Morris; Ben Quincey; Shaun Richardson; Jason and Becs Shaw; Ollie Smith; Alun Thomas; Pete Thorne; Darren Wright

Five Year Medals

• Rosa Balgarnie • Sunny Becker

• Finlay Bera • Katie Conroy • Ivy Cooper • Blake Darragh • Brax

Doddrell • Liv Gibson • Indi Holland

• Flynn Hunt • Millie Ison • Nella

Jones • Ralph Lane • Ed Luxton

• Alexander Manning • Rhiannon McAnally • Francesca Morrison • Ollie Prentice • Theodore Scarfe • Baxter Scott • Annabelle Scovell

• Ruby Stewart • Catherine Sturgess-Taylor • Rose Taingahue

• Luis Warner • Alexandra Watkins

• Georgia Westgate • Scarlett Westgate • Ellie Williams.

Traffic snarls after blaze destroys car on Lake Rd

Traffic backed up on Lake Rd late last month after a spectacular car fire on Lake Rd outside Takapuna Grammar School.

The male driver of the sole vehicle involved managed to pull over and get out after he noticed smoke.

“It blew up properly,” he told a Flagstaff reporter who came across the incident about 2pm on Thursday 22 August. “It was lucky my daughter wasn’t in there.”

Black clouds billowed high in the air and flames licked well above the height of the four-wheel-drive, which was a write-off.

School students and members of the public looked on as the car burned.

Traffic was diverted by a bystander onto Eversleigh Rd. A fire appliance and firefighters from Devonport arrived and put out the fire.

The car’s driver said he lived in Hauraki, but declined to give his name. He said the car was not insured.

“I think it was an electrical fault,” he said. “I opened the sunroof and then it started smoking after that – it wasn’t the engine.”

Lots of smoke was coming from behind him, but he was able to get out without undue difficulty, crossing to safety on the other side of the road.

The fire was the second incident in a week to spark an emergency and clog side streets,

after an afternoon head-on collision on 18 August, which caused moderate injuries to a teenage girl.

The road between Eversleigh Rd and

Bardia St was closed for more than an hour. Traffic diverted via Coronation St and Creamer Ave. Northboro Rd was also jammed.

Where there’s smoke... a firefighter hoses a car with water after it burst into flames on Lake Rd near Takapuna Grammar School

Only hand-sorted recycling on the Shore

Resource Recovery Devonport is the only company on the North Shore that handsorts every skip bin we process at our recycling centre on Lake Rd.

We actively recover resources other waste companies throw in the landfill.

Up to 50% of waste going to landfill comes from the construction and demolition industry.

The large waste management companies on the North Shore typically tip their skip bins at transfer stations that send the waste directly to landfill.

At Resource Recovery Devonport, we are proud to say we achieve 80% to 90% recovery of construction and demolition materials for recycling.

We have beautiful yellow bins, not rusty graffitied relics blighting the streetscape and have a fast turnaround of skips at our depot.

As a not-for-profit community organisation we support local organisations such as Restoring Takuranga Hauraki, Ngataringa Organic Gardens, North

Shore Football Club, Devonport Croquet, Devonport Peninsula Trust Kids Athletics.

In 2024 we will donate more than $70,000 to local community groups.

So when locals use our services, they are supporting their own community.

We would encourage local home owners having construction work done to ask their builders to use our skips so we can recycle more locally produced waste.

Devonport Community Recycling 2024 facts

• Wood - 350 tonnes

• Green Waste - 1300 tonnes

• Scrap metal - 200 tonnes

• E-waste - 2 tonnes

• Mixed recycling - 60 tonnes

• Polystyrene - 600 cubic metres

• Reuse shop found new life for 250 tonnes of discarded goods

• Our landscapes supplies business North Shore Landscapes sold more than 2000 cubic metres of garden products made from recycled green waste.

BINS IN A HURRY QUICK TURN OVER BINS IN A HURRY QUICK

Cheap Skip Bins

We hand sort every skip... To recycle more!

Are flexible bins the worst invention to hit the recycling industry in 30 years?

Our aim is to eradicate the use of flexible bins in our community. New Zealanders stopped using single-use plastic bags a long time ago, why use a single-use plastic skip or flexible bin??

Check out the life cycle of flexible bins: manufactured overseas in India, China, and Pakistan.

• Transported from the factory to port by truck burning diesel and releasing CO2

• Loaded on the ship using diesel.

• Shipped around the world, burning more diesel and releasing CO2

• Transported by road in NZ to a warehouse using more diesel, emitting more CO2 and adding to congestion.

• Transported again in NZ to a distributor, yep using more diesel, emitting yet more CO2

• Transported again from there to your home.

• Next it’s filled and then left out on the berm looking awful with litter blowing out of it.

• Eventually it’s transported again through the Auckland traffic –more diesel and CO2 and more congestion.

• Lastly, after all that, it’s dumped in a landfill and never used again.

RECYCLING GARDEN & GENERAL WASTE TRAILER HIRE

It’s ironic that many flexible bin providers use them to promote recycling.

In contrast, our steel bins are made in New Zealand and will be used thousands of times throughout their lifetime, and then they will be recycled and the steel goes around again.

Please, if you are thinking of using a flexible bin, think again.

If your neighbour is using one, take a moment to educate them, and give them our number 09 445 3830

Richard Linthwaite, General Manager Resource Recovery Devonport

• New builds and renovations

• Rewires

• Home network cabling

• Wall-mount TVs

• Home theatre

LocaL to Devonport

Call Peter Cairns for your free quotation

Phone 021 858 243 or 445 4675 email allsafe.electrical@xtra.co.nz

Painting & Decorating Specialists

Serving Auckland for over 35

Office: 445 8099

email: info@bissetltd.co.nz www.bissetltd.co.nz

Andrew Holloway Floorsander

Landscaping Devonport

Garden design and construction

Whether you are planning a garden refresh or a full renovation, we can help with all the planning, construction and planting. Including decks, retaining, pergolas, paving and fencing. Everything outdoors! Call Steve on 021 345 694 www.naturalgardens.co.nz

• Floorsanding

• Polyurethaning and staining

• Tongue and Groove repairs

• Serving Devonport since 1995

Please phone for a free quote Phone 027 285 4519

ahfloorsanding@xtra.co.nz www.ahfloorsanding.co.nz

ahfloorsanding@xtra.co.nz

Plumbing, Gasfitting, Drainage, Roof Leaks

MAINTENANCE SPECIALISTS

Prompt courteous service

Fully insured for your peace of mind

Certifying Plumber, Gasfitter and Drainlayer Call Matt

John Bisset LtD

Trades & Services

Cactus Dance Company on Top at Dance NZ Made

2024 has continued to be a fantastic year for our premiere Dance company, Cactus, who took out top honours at the recent Dance NZ Made regional competition. The team placed first in their section and were named Open Team Champions, plus they won the biggest award of the night: Overall Team Regional Champions - when they scored the highest out of every other Auckland school competing.

The team has worked incredibly hard this year and that preparation, combined with the stunning choreography of Cactus Dance Leaders (pictured

L-R) Audrey Roberts, Samantha Lathwood and Heidi Cairncross, really set them apart. Teacher in Charge of Dance, Mrs Grant, couldn’t be prouder;

“This team has gelled superbly this year, they have a really positive energy, and it shows when they perform. They deserve this recognition for all their hard workthey all represented the Company and

Currently, one in five families in Auckland is facing food insecurity. To support those in need, the Auckland City Mission has been working tirelessly, distributing over 50,600 food parcels, and serving over 75,200 hot meals in their community dining room, in 2023 alone.

Takapuna Grammar School’s Orange Week is an incredible House Event where students contribute non-perishable food items for the Auckland City Mission to help those who struggle to have food readily accessible to them. This year, our year 12 house leaders did an outstanding job raising awareness and encouraging donations. Over a span of five weeks, our staff and students responded generously, resulting in a remarkable 6,044 food items collected!

Here are some noteworthy results from the competition: Fifteen form classes across the school each gathered over 100 donations, with Ms. Shelley’s class, WehiCN, leading the way by contributing an outstanding 502 items. Special recognition goes to Hugo Chapman and Orla Langdon for their exceptional generosity, each donating over 310 canned goods to their respective form classes.

Congratulations to Wehi House for collecting 1,635 donations and earning 50 house points for their incredible effort.

Thank you to everyone in the wider school community who helped make this happen!

our School so well and I was by far the luckiest teacher in the room.” Tempus Dance company also competed solidly, scoring in the 90s for both their performances. With such great results this year, we can’t wait to see how each team progresses in 2025 and beyond.

Shave for a Cure Prefect-led Event Raises over $4.5k

Takapuna Grammar hosted our annual Shave for a Cure event, bringing together students and staff to support Leukaemia & Blood Cancer New Zealand. The event saw participants bravely shave their heads to raise awareness and funds for those affected by blood cancers and ensure people with cancer get the support they need. It was a powerful display of solidarity, with participants securing sponsorships from both friends and families. Alongside this the school celebrated Crazy Hair Day, with everyone sporting wild hairstyles in support of the cause.

A special thank-you to the Barbershop Co Devonport, whose barbers generously donated their time and expertise to ensure every shave was top-notch.

The school rallied together for this important cause, raising $4,600.00.

Local historian had Lange link

Long-time Devonport resident and local historian Joyce Fairgray has died.

Fairgray (pictured) published a well-received biography, Isabel Maud from Devonport in 2006, which detailed the life of Isabel Peacocke, an author who wrote 25 books for children and 16 novels between 1915 and 1939.

Fairgray wrote further books including one on royal biographer Hector Bolitho, a former resident of Huia St.

In her early years, Fairgray was an English teacher at Otahuhu College where

one of her pupils was David Lange, who became New Zealand Prime Minister from 1984 to 1989.

In his memoirs Lange paid special mention to the then Miss Joyce Pegler, as “competent and an inspiration”.

Fairgray lived for many years on Queens Pde, in the family home of her husband Mervyn. She researched and published a history of the house.

Interested in local news, Fairgray was a regular letter writer to the Devonport Flagstaff.

20 years ago from

• Court action is threatened over heritage windows removed from a Buchanan St home, with North Shore City Councillor Andrew Eaglen calling council compliance officers to investigate work on the 1880s house. The renovation of the house by Lloyd and Caroline Sills was criticised by many as demolition by stealth.

• The fire service assures the Flagstaff that it will be at least four years before a proposed northwards move of the Devonport fire station goes ahead.

• Residents of Ascot Ave fear a child could be electrocuted due to power lines bisecting trees

• Midday shoppers rush to the aid of an elderly woman knocked over on the pedestrian crossing in Clarence St.

the Flagstaff files

• Devonport businesses have paid around $708,000 to the North Shore City Council under a cash-in-lieu system for businesses that cannot provide an appropriate number of parking spaces for its employees and customers.

• A group of Japanese students visiting Bayswater School to improve their English become teachers themselves – holding origami classes.

• Stained glass artist Holly Sanford is the Flagstaff interview subject.

• Chris Darby, Ngataringa Bay Society chair, is invited to speak to the Foreshore and Seabed select committee.

• A new green route for cyclists is considered by North Shore City.

• The Flagstaff Gallery moves to 30 Victoria Rd, from its original site across the road from Devonport Library.

• The Masonic order’s history in Devonport is outlined by Rod Corneliius of Devonport Museum.

• Property prices appear on the rise, with a three-bedroom house in Huia St on the market for $1,325,000.

• Evelyn Short and Philippa Bentley organise a Mother exhibition at the Depot featuring a range of painters, sculptors, photographers, poets, musicians and glass artists.

• Aquathons replace triathlons in Devonport for the summer season after organisers find council restrictions on the cycling course too onerous.

Expansion into East Coast Bays suggested

East Coast Bays coastal suburbs should be added to the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board (DTLB) area to boost its size, board members say.

Their suggestion of an expansion of the board area, which currently runs from Devonport to Castor Bay and Sunnynook, will go to an Auckland Council working party, which will recommend board boundary changes for introduction ahead of the 2028 local body elections.

Combined with the Glenfield-based Kaipātiki Local Board west of the Northern Motorway, the DTLB makes up the North Shore ward from which two Auckland councillors are elected.

Under another council proposal, Devonport-Takapuna would be merged with Kaipātiki into a new North Shore board.

Expanding the DTLB area north would help meet a council target of evening out the population of each ward to reduce variations to plus or minus 10 per cent.

The existing Albany ward is just over 10 per cent above the guide size of 170,000 residents, whereas the North Shore ward is minus 13.7 per cent, DTLB chair Toni van Tonder noted.

Albany encompasses the Hibiscus and Bays and Upper Harbour local boards. With Albany’s population growing faster

than North Shore’s, board member George Wood said it made sense to look at adjusting boundaries for 2028, rather than waiting for another review three years later.

“In another six years there could be a very substantial change and council will have to look at taking on quite a lot of residents north of our North Shore ward,” he said.

Van Tonder said the DTLB’s request that an expansion north be considered did not get into specific suggestions of what suburbs “north along the East Coast Bays” might be added to the DTLB area.

But she was keen for the working party to consider the option.

The board delegated Wood and Gavin Busch to speak at a hearing before the working party finalises representation recommendations.

They will do so today, 6 September. Councillors will then vote on implementing the review.

The board agreed with a suggested small boundary change for administrative reasons to put Saunders Reserve, north of Sunset Rd, wholly within the Upper Harbour Board area, rather than it being split with the DTLB as is now the case.

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown wanted local board amalgamation to be completed for next year’s local body elections, but

councillors instead opted for 2028.

The aim is to save costs and create larger, more-empowered local boards.

DTLB is wary about the plan, which the public is yet to have a say on. It fears local voices will be watered down.

DTLB has six elected members now and Kaipātiki eight, with proposals for a five-seven split making up a 12-member board.

Some DTLB members have suggested the plan has more to do with administrative convenience in following existing ward boundaries and shared board staffing, rather than creating genuine communities of interest by looking to northern suburbs rather than west.

• While the board’s future shape is uncertain, its budgets are looking steadier for the current and next financial year, after it was forced to make big cuts in 2022-2023, in a council spending clampdown.

The planned introduction of an equity-funding formula next year threatened further loss of local spend. But this has been delayed. The formula will over time mean proportionally less for asset-rich areas such as the North Shore, but no cuts on existing budgets. Instead the equity or “fairer funding” formula will be eased, with the rebalancing to apply on new spending.

Tēnā koutou, welcome to September!

DEPOT Artspace's current exhibition ‘Sponge City’ explores urban resilience against the adverse weather eﬀects of climate change, featuring the works of Hard-Pressed Collective, lead by local maker Celia Walker.

maker Celia Walker.

Through the artform of printmaking, this collaborative exhibition - delivered in partnership with Restoring Takarunga Hauraki (RTH) - addresses the recent ﬂooding that Tāmaki Makaurau has experienced and how this natural disaster impacted our communities. It's truly an impactful and stunning exhibition!

We’re also hosting a FREE Tetra Pak Printmaking workshop on Saturday 14 September, 2-4pm. Be sure to check out depot.org.nz and register your spot today!

And next month for First Thursdays we are hosting ‘Collage Your Internal Self-Portrait,’ a hands-on workshop with Naomi Azoulay - 3 October, 5-7:30pm.

Participants will curate symbolic portraits reﬂecting their individuality by selecting images, colours, and textures that resonate with them and experimenting with various techniques, from spontaneous tearing to precise detail cutting.

Tickets are $10 and refreshments are provided courtesy of our hospitality partner Toi Toi Wines.

Visit depot.org.nz for more information, event registration, and to stay up to date by subscribing to our e-newsletter!

Ngā mihi nui, Amy Saunders

Roof fund boosted by $20k grant

a step

Harmony Hall’s reroofing fund has skyrocketed by $20,000, thanks to a grant from the John Stewart Booth Trust.

The hall committee aims to raise more than $60,000 to replace the Wynyard St hall’s roof, gutters and downpipes.

With the $20,000 grant, the roof campaign fund is closing in on $30,000.

The hall’s next fundraising concert is this

week – at 7pm on Thursday 5 September. It will feature Linn Lorkin, Peter Wood, Rick Roff, David Powell, Nigel Gavin, Mark Laurent Liddiard, John Davy, David Mills, Neil Finlay, Chris Priestley and others.

Tickets are $30 on the door, with additional donations accepted. BYO drinks and snacks.

Locals behind big Eden Park art show

Two Devonport art entrepreneurs will showcase several North Shore artists at the annual Art in the Park show at Eden Park this month.

local resident Matich heads its sales and development.

Director | Kaiwhakahaere, DEPOT amy.saunders@depot.org.nz

Ngā mihi nui, 9

TO SUPPORT DEPOT ARTSPACE

Event directors Sofija Matich and Cary Cochrane have combined for a fourth time to run the large-scale show over 19-22 September.

Cochrane runs the Flagstaff gallery on Victoria Rd as a family business and fellow

They came up with the idea of a national art show, away from a gallery setting, as a way to make art buying accessible to a general audience.

Around 150 New Zealand artists will feature, including painters Rachel Rush from Hauraki and Jenni Stringleman from Devonport.

IN DEVONPORT SINCE 2015

Liya Janali Senior Podiatrist working from Devonport clinic since 2016

Shakilo Sekander Podiatrist working in the Devonport clinic since 2020

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Wednesday 2:00pm to 6:00pm | Friday 9:00am to 6:00pm

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New roof

closer…Harmony Hall stalwarts David Mills (left) and John Davy celebrate the $20,000 grant from the John Stewart Booth Trust

Eight hands make piano performance work

Four Takapuna Grammar School (TGS) students will perform a showpiece “eight hands” piano work at a charity concert one of the players is producing.

Qixuan Liang, a Year 12 student from Hauraki, said he got the idea for the fundraiser last year, leading to a group of youth musicians being assembled to stage the Keys for Cure Concert, to raise money for the Cancer Society.

Although the show, featuring around 15 musicians, will be held in Birkenhead, at its heart is the TGS four-person, two-piano quartet, which includes Qixuan, fellow Year 12s Queenie Qiu and David Xie and Year 10 Elaine Zhang.

All are excited to be combining for a good cause in what Qixuan says is a “rarity” performance. “It will be something they haven’t seen before.”

David elaborates: “It’s a really good opportunity, there’s not many times you get to see two pianos side-by-side and eight hands playing.”

They hope to attract plenty of people from the Devonport peninsula for their performance of Beethoven’s Egmont overture, an eight-minute work.

The rest of the concert’s programme of classical and contemporary works draws on youth talent from across the North Shore, including from TGS.

Volunteers from the school will also help out at the concert on Sunday 15 September.

The quartet will draw on their experience playing piano together in TGS group Fortissimo, which competed in the school’s section of the New Zealand Chamber Music Contest, held in June. They are also individually involved in various other music activities at school, with the three senior students involved in this year’s school musical, We

Will Rock You. Queenie and Elaine back up the school choirs and David and Qixuan play in the concert band and school orchestra.

Qixuan hopes the charity concert will become an annual event. He got the idea for it from a concert put together by his former music school, and approached his piano teacher Nick Wang about pulling together something similar.

The Cancer Society stood out to him as a worthy beneficiary, said Qixuan. KBB Music store came on board as a sponsor.

The quartet of pianists are pleased to be involved in an event with a community benefit, while showcasing their passion for music.

All have been playing since they were

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very young.

“It’s sort of a cultural hobby, some people have sports,” says Elaine.

To drum up interest in the concert, the students are promoting it with posters, including at Takapuna Library, and online. They have also contacted retirement homes.

They plan on performing for around 700 people across three sessions.

• Keys for Cure Concert is on 15 September, at the Brian Gerrard Theatre at Birkenhead College. Buy tickets ($30; $10 for students and seniors) by donating at youcanforcancer. org.nz/88keysforcureconcert and emailing a receipt screenshot to keysforcureconcert@ gmail.

Key personnel... (from left) David Xie, Elaine Zhang, Queenie Qiu and Qixuan Liang

Cultural guide and weaver spreads the word with

Weaver and community champion Terehia Walker is spreading her cultural knowledge up the peninsula from home base in Devonport.

Walker’s weaving is on display at the Rose Centre in Belmont this month, and she is also one of those behind a group that has started teaching others the raranga (weaving) tradition in Bayswater.

“Heaps of people I know want to learn weaving,” she says.

In collaboration with the Rose Centre, Walker is also planning a series of courses to begin there in October.

She will take one on te reo, with a focus on helping people become more familiar with local history and using place names so they too can spread the word.

“I really feel it’s relevant and important to our area,” she says.

Subjects covered would include the maunga and creeks of the area, the Tainui landing at Torpedo Bay and identities such as chief Patuone.

To spread the course load, young artist Aleisha Roulston, who used to live locally, will teach the basics of raranga. Tikanga classes are also being planned.

Rose Centre manager Abby Jones says details for Term 4 are yet to be finalised.

But the courses will build on the centre’s growing outreach activities, many free, such as those around Matariki, and the installation of a waharoa or carved entranceway at the centre.

Walker said the end of the three-monthlong Matariki season was recently marked by the community kapa haka group, Te Hau Kapua, which she helps lead.

“Heaps of people I know want to learn weaving.”

Guests from Haumaru Housing were invited along to the Rose Centre for the performance and a pot-luck dinner. Cold weather kept some away, so a daytime gathering is on the cards in summer.

Walker is a believer in not just passing on knowledge, but also learning more herself. She completed a six-month weaving course through Te Wānanga o Aotearoa this year. With other weavers, she has run courses for the Depot Artspace in Devonport, where she has a role as cultural adviser, and exhibited at Depot’s Te Toi, Kerr St offshoot.

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Cash for Schools 2024

Watch a movie, enter the draw and earn your school cash!

Watch any movie during the T3/T4 school holidays at Takapuna Beachside Cinemas. Fill in the online form, and we donate $1 to your school and put you into the draw to win one of three $100 gift cards.

At the end of the holidays, we will total up the entries, donate money back to your school and draw our three prize winners.

1 Primary, 1

She and her husband, Navy cultural adviser and carver Ngahiwi Walker, have previously jointly exhibited at the Rose Centre.

The couple have recently returned from more than a month overseas, visiting family in North America and stopping off in Hawaii and the Cook Islands.

Since then, Walker has rejoined Friday morning weaving classes in Bayswater, at the marae founded by Danny Watson. These have a strong cultural component.

“Bayswater is a different clientele to Devonport,” she says.

In Devonport, plenty of older Pākehā are among those eager to learn. But overall, the busy grandmother finds herself teaching mainly women in the 35-to-60 bracket.

“A lot of them are mums or nans and they’ve got a bit more time.”

Walker hopes the Rose Centre courses tutored by Roulston will draw in some younger learners. “We’re inviting people to give it a go.”

One who is interested is Olympian Eliza McCartney, a fellow Restoring Takarunga Hauraki environmental group member with Walker.

While out on a bike ride – before making the pole-vault final at the Paris Olympics

Students’ art show

Student art from seven Devonport peninsula schools is on display at Takapuna Library until Tuesday, 10 September.

The exhibition, themed around place, is called Te Ara ō Peretu (The Path of Peretu), referring to the peninsula coastline and Tainui ancestor Peretu, who landed on the shores of what is now Torpedo Bay.

The Kahui Ako school grouping collaborating on the exhibition comprises Takapuna Grammar, Belmont Intermediate, and Belmont, Bayswater, Vauxhall, Devonport and Stanley Bay Primary schools.

Tours of homes, gardens on offer

Devonport homes and gardens will feature in two big charity fundraising tours in November that give the public the chance to peek behind front gates and doors.

Homes of Devonport, on Friday 1 November, features 10 houses ranging from classic villas to modern gems. The Devonport Rotary event, raised almost $100,000 in 2022.

The Auckland Garden DesignFest, being held over the weekend of 23-24 November, showcases the work of 21 leading garden designers across Auckland. North Shore gardens are represented by a property in Devonport and another in Castor Bay.

exhibition and classes in Belmont and Bayswater

– McCartney came across Walker sitting in the grass in Kawerau Reserve, preparing to weave harakeke she harvests from there.

“I’ll have to do some with you,” Walker says McCartney told her.

She hopes the Bayswater-based athlete will one day take up the challenge.

Down the track, Walker is also looking at running courses at the Sunnynook Community Centre and at the Milford seniors hall, after interest from groups in those suburbs.

Her exhibition at the Rose Centre, which is on throughout September, offers examples of what can be achieved.

Among Walker’s pieces on display are baskets – including baby-sized for pepe –hats, mats, a wall hanging and putiputi, or flowers she has woven and dyed, which are her personal favourite.

To aid the inclusive cross-cultural understanding she is so keen on fostering, signs for the descriptions of the pieces are in both Māori and English. “So everyone knows what they mean.”

Sharing her knowledge... Weaver Terehia Walker is exhibiting at the Rose Centre and teaching others at classes in Bayswater

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