Press Release

 

 

Efforts to restore the Mangawhai harbour have just been given an $87,264 boost by  ASB Community Trust.

 

 

The grant will help the Mangawhai Harbour Restoration Society buy a dredge to  keep the harbour open. The east coast harbour, north of Wellsford, suffered a catastrophic environmental failure when sand dunes collapsed following sand mining.

Since then the community has raised nearly $2m to restore the harbour and stabilise the dunes. The ASB Trusts latest grant follows two earlier payments totalling $50,000.

Trust CEO Jennifer Gill said the project was seen as a funding priority because there is a high risk the harbour could close again if the dredge does not begin work soon.

The restoration society’s work has benefited the whole community, she said, because the small band of committed volunteers had repaired environmental damage to a unique heritage site – the habitat of one of New Zealand’s rarest birds, the Mangawhai Fairey Tern.

“The entire Mangawhai community has benefited from this community project as the society’s work is returning Mangawhai Harbour to its former environmental health,” she said.

Restoration society chairman Graham MacKenzie said the latest grant had made the entire community very happy.

The Trust has also approved a $200,000 grant to help upgrade Kaipara’s Oturei Marae. The work will include a new wharekai and an upgrade of the wharenui, with funding also coming from the Lottery Board and the marae’s own fundraising.

“This is a large undertaking for the marae and the ASB Trusts recognise the special role of marae to the communities of our region,” Ms Gill said.      

Each year the Trust make grants of around $50m to community groups in Auckland and Northland. At the December monthly meeting trustees agreed to hand out $1.2m for projects in education, the arts, sport, recreation, health and social services areas.

(ENDS)