Museum open days to highlight harbour

Mangawhai Harbour Restoration Society (MHRS) is shining the spotlight on itself this Easter, running a weekend of Open Days at the museum, expanding on its permanent exhibit to highlight the importance of our harbour which the community depends upon both economically and physically.

At a loose end? Putting together a list of must-do’s for the family? Don’t miss this great opportunity for you and your family to visit Mangawhai Museum free of charge at Easter Weekend.

One of the museum’s permanent exhibits is that of Mangawhai Harbour Restoration. Most of Mangawhai’s long-time residents know the story behind the exhibit, but there will be newer residents and visitors who know little if anything about the harbour or Mangawhai Harbour Restoration Society which is such an integral part of the community.

Although Mangawhai Harbour is a natural harbour, it is not an entity we should take for granted. The harbour provides not just leisure facilities, moorings, an exit to the sea, a clean sanctuary for wildlife (including the threatened fairy tern), and a pretty environment but a buffer between us and the open sea. A buffer which, because of storms and natural progression, almost disappeared but for the intervention of a group of hardy locals who wouldn’t let it happen. A buffer which is carefully monitored and maintained and will need to be into the future.

Looking at our pristine harbour today, could you even guess at its recent history and the countless man-hours which have gone into making it this way? The story is fascinating and this, along with MHRS’s current and future work, is reflected in the exhibition.

In 1978 a severe storm battered the harbour and opened up a southern breach in the sand spit. The flushing capacity of the north entrance decreased by 75 percent, and by 1989, after more storms and Cyclone Bola, both harbour entrances were extremely shallow and difficult to navigate. And by the end of 1990 sedimentation blocked the north entrance and the harbour was stagnating.

Locals were angered that they couldn’t get help from local bodies or government to rectify the extremely serious problems confronting the harbour and took it upon themselves – secretly and illegally – to re-open the north entrance.Thus began the operation now known as the Big Dig and Mangawhai Harbour Restoration Society was born out of this colourful background.

Since 1996 the MHRS, in consultation with DOC and Northland Regional Council, has continued a programme of channel dredging and maintenance of the harbour and bund wall, further enhancing the harbour and providing more recreational areas, wind fencing, mangrove removal and management propagation, and planting of thousands of spinifex and pingao to stabilise the dunes.

The MHRS works alongside the Fairy Tern Society to create the right environment and successful breeding ground for endangered fairy terns, and provide a haven for many other species of NZ and foreign migratory birds.

MHRS Open Days will provide a significant insight to the Harbour, where it has been and where it is going. You will be able to talk to the people who are involved in the society’s current projects and some who were there for the Big Dig. The expanded exhibition including slide shows, photos and a quiz for the children.

MHRS work is funded by a rates subsidy, approved community funds, grants and goodwill, and it is still in the hands of dedicated and hard-working volunteers.

n REMEMBER: Mangawhai Museum, Molesworth Drive, Mangawhai Heads, Easter weekend, open every day 10am to 4pm. Free entry.

PRISTINE: Mangawhai Harbour circa 1991 (left) and more recently. The MHRS continues a programme of channel dredging and maintenance of the harbour and bund wall.