Bid to stop inshore sand mining

Residents and community groups have asked Auckland Council to stop continued inshore sand mining of Pakiri and Mangawhai Beaches, following serious damage to the beach and sand dunes from recent storms and cyclones.

They say the repeated onslaught from wind and water, coupled with almost daily dredging by Auckland aggregate firm McCallum Bros, is leaving the beaches stripped of sand and unable to recover.

At Pakiri, landowner Wendy Brown says she has seen eight to 10 metres of sand get eaten away from the dunes since 2020. Most recently, erosion has exposed a number of broad, flat rocks at the top of the beach that were previously buried deep under a dune and have never been seen by anyone before.

“I’m down on the beach every day and saw them last Monday (May 22),” she said. “I looked down the beach and thought they were logs come ashore, but it was these rocks. It shouldn’t be like that.”

Brown said the dredging meant the eroded sand never had a chance to come back to the beach.

“You can’t stop the wind blowing, but you can stop them taking the sand. It’s not right.”

Brown is one of a group of descendants of Rāhui Te Kiri who own the coastal land at Pakiri and who will be facing McCallum Bros in the Environment Court next month, trying to get the sand mining stopped once and for all.

“Them coming here and taking the sand is like us going down to their place in Auckland and digging up their lawn. This is our land and our inheritance. It’s our life,” she said. “It hurts like hell.”