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RNZ News
7 days ago
- Climate
- RNZ News
South Otago residents keen for flood-prevention action
The Clutha River/Mata-Au. Photo: RNZ / Tess Brunton South Otago residents want action as they prepare to face more flooding and other hazards in the future. The Otago Regional Council is developing a strategy for how vulnerable communities in the Clutha Delta can adapt. A public drop-in session was held in Balclutha on Tuesday so locals could hear about the mahi (work), ask questions and tell the council what they wanted to see done. Dave Inder farms next to the Clutha River in the delta and has watched his property disappear under water more than once. "We have to make decisions according to the temper of the river. It's quite simple really, I mean you can't be complacent," Inder said. "It doesn't have to be local rain, it can be rain in the west and it's a huge influence on us and the people below us, they're even worse." Those downstream had a tougher time getting rid of the water as they could also face big seas and backflows, he said. Sometimes rainwater became trapped on the wrong side of the floodbanks and they struggled to get rid of it. "The Clutha wasn't really in flood but our local rivers were and the delta filled up and we couldn't get the water out. There are pipes there that were not satisfactory, but they hadn't been satisfactory for a flood like that for many years," he said. He has been meeting with the Otago Regional Council to solve the issue and headed to the drop in session in the 'Big River Town' for answers. "The regional council come with ideas, plans and all sorts of things, but nothing's fruited yet," he said. "Snow melt could be on the way again - so there are a few anxious farmers and we just want to know if they intend to fulfill their promises." But he was keen to work together to find solutions and said that was the way forward. The Balclutha sign. Photo: RNZ / Tess Brunton Groundwater could be high in parts of the low-lying floodplain and drainage could be difficult. The area has several active faults and could also be vulnerable to storm surge or tsunamis from the Pacific Ocean. The Lower Clutha Flood Protection and Drainage Scheme drains more than 9000 hectares from north of Balclutha to the sea and was designed to mitigate flooding from Mata-Au/Clutha River. The council's natural hazards manager, Dr Jean-Luc Payan, said an adaptation plan was about more than flood banks and drains. It looked at how to keep hazards away from people, allow water to safely leave and, in some cases, how to get people out of harm's way, he said. "That's really the purpose of the strategy, understanding the current environment, how this environment is going to change in the future, what people value in the area, how they see their future, and how we can combine those tools to have a safe environment in the Clutha Delta," Payan said. But it was a challenge - the Clutha is a powerful body of water. The delta was at the end of the catchment that was fed from big lakes in Queenstown and Wānaka. "All that water that falls on the alpine area will end up in the Clutha." A common theme at the session was people asking if the flood protection scheme was operating as planned, he said. The council recently published a study that showed current sediment levels were not impacting the flood capacity of the river, Payan said. But business-as-usual maintenance and work would continue in parallel to the mahi on the strategy, he said. The Clutha is a powerful body of water. Photo: RNZ / Tess Brunton Dairy farmer Thomas Marshall lives at the mouth of the Clutha in Paretai. Flooding could leave paddocks out of action for six months, taking away half his income, he said. "It's been hard trying to get any maintenance done for years now and it's just cost us a lot of money in flooding and it just gets really frustrating," he said. He would like to see the council ramp up its efforts to maintain the flood protection scheme. Balclutha resident Stephen John said it was unreal to see the Clutha River in flood. "Last big flood we had, what was that? 1998,1999? and to see it right up the top of the river banks, right round through here ... so scary." He was keen to understand the hazards facing his community. "Just to catch up with everything that's going on and how we're helping things and, yeah, how scared we should be or not because I'm living down on the flat now." Balclutha resident Pip Martin was encouraged to see the mahi underway to come up with an adaptation strategy and keep the community informed. He was worried about the maintenance of a nearby floodbank. It appeared lacking in the past, culminating fears it might fail and resulting in him evacuating during one of the last floods, he said. Dr Jean-Luc Payan said the strategy was in the early stages and the council was working to understand the current environment and how it was expected to change. It was similar to the work the council had been undertaking in South Dunedin, Middlemarch and Glenorchy. With the final strategy a few years away, it wanted locals to help to shape the future of their community. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Otago Daily Times
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Local Legend: Selena Aitken-Boyle
PHOTO: NICK BROOK The Clutha Leader-Silver Fern Farms Local Legend for July 10 is Balclutha stylist Selena Aitken-Boyle. "She's so kind and welcoming to everybody, especially the elderly people she works with," her nominator, Sandra Brown said. "She's also been with the South Otago Theatrical Society for years." In fact, Mrs Aitken-Boyle has 30 years with the society, including seven years managing local youth theatre. "I love seeing people get excited about upcoming shows and watching new talent grow as they learn all different aspects of production, on and off stage," she said. "I've seen friendships that last forever grow out of that, and the skills and confidence young people develop from it play a positive part in the rest of their lives."
San Francisco Chronicle
10-05-2025
- San Francisco Chronicle
Where have S.F.'s historic ships gone? Not too far, actually
Very quietly, almost without notice, most of the ships in America's floating national park are sailing off from San Francisco to a new home port. They will be gone for a while — three to five years — until the National Park Service rebuilds the Hyde Street Pier in San Francisco. It was a bit of a shock to see the big old sailing ships missing from their berth when I drove by the northern edge of Fisherman's Wharf the other day. But it was a pleasant sight to see them tied up, flags flying, on the waterfront at Mare Island in Vallejo a few days later. It was as if a bit of San Francisco had moved out of town. These ships are all part of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. The historic vessels docked at the foot of Hyde Street at the end of a cable car line make one of those classic scenes that define San Francisco: two tall ships, two tugboats and a big white ferryboat, the Golden Gate on one side, Alcatraz on the other. It's the ships that launched a thousand tourist photographs. But the photographs don't show the problems that are inherent to places where the land and the sea meet. The historic fleet is based around the edges of San Francisco's beautiful Aquatic Park. Two piers enclose a lagoon, like bookends. On the west side is the concrete Municipal Pier, which acts as a breakwater. This pier has been crumbling away for years and is closed to the public. On the other side is the Hyde Street Pier, where the historic ships were berthed. Hyde Street Pier had its origins as a ferry terminal a century ago. But time, the wind and the salt water weakened the pier; it must be totally rebuilt and the ships have to be moved. It was a bit like relocating senior citizens from an old house. It has to be done slowly and carefully. The big old sailing ship Balclutha and the lumber schooner went first, along with the sidewheel tugboat Eppleton Hall. Later this month, the National Park Service expects to move the tugboat Hercules and the ferryboat Eureka to Mare Island. It will be a new day for Mare Island, which has a complex history of its own. It has been the home port for everything from wooden gunboats to nuclear submarines. The Navy base on Mare Island closed in 1996, and the island has been redeveloped for other uses — a shipyard, a college campus, training facilities, housing and the oldest golf course in the West. Mare Island has trees, lawns and a nice view of Vallejo across the channel. And now it has historic ships. The Sailor Girl, my companion in small adventures, went to Mare Island with me to see the ships the other Sunday. We couldn't go aboard, not yet. The National Park Service, which cares for the ships, has not gotten them settled in yet. But the Thayer and the Balclutha are tied up close to the dock and easy to see. Best of all, the two ships are berthed right next to the Mare Island Brewing Co. They used to store coal there in the Navy days. Now they make beer. So we sat in the sun having lunch and a craft beer with a big old sailing ship in the background. Not a bad Sunday adventure. We were surprised at how naturally the Balclutha fit in at the Mare Island shore. The old ship comes with stories, and one of them is its maiden voyage. The ship was brand new, 256 feet long, a full rigged ship with a hull of iron and steel, three masts and no engine when it sailed from the Port of Cardiff in Wales on Jan. 15, 1887, carrying 2,650 tons of coal bound for San Francisco. The trip took more than four months. Once the coal cargo was unloaded, the Balclutha was towed up San Francisco and San Pablo Bay to anchor in Carquinez Strait to load a cargo of grain for England. So it should not have been a surprise the old ship looked comfortable on Mare Island. It had been that way before. We talked a bit about the schooner I'd brought a book about the ship along. The Thayer had different stories. It was a workhorse of a schooner. Built by a Dane named Hans Bendixen in his own shipyard near Eureka, in 1895 it carried lumber for years. After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the Thayer brought redwood lumber from Mendocino County to rebuild the city. The lumber company's dock was on Mission Creek, near where the baseball park is now. A San Francisco story. After that, the ship sailed to Australia and the south seas. The ship was owned by 'Whitehead Pete' Nelson, one of those old time waterfront characters. 'His office was in his hat,' the author Harlan Trott said. In later years, the Thayer operated in the codfish trade, working out of Puget Sound to Bristol Bay in Alaska, five months at sea on each voyage. When it arrived from its last season it carried 190,000 salted codfish, the final voyage of American flag commercial sailing vessels. In 1957, the state of California bought it for a new maritime park. The Thayer had many close calls, and was nearly wrecked three times. The old ship was almost done in by old age and dry rot at least twice more over the years. It was rebuilt by craft workers at Bay Ship and Yacht Co. in Alameda not long ago and had some more work done in the past year, and when it was towed up to Mare Island last month it looked brand new, a 130-year-old survivor. The park rangers are careful about what they say in these tough government times. But they couldn't hide their enthusiasm for the temporary berth at Mare Island. 'It will be good here,' one of them said. 'We'll be able to show these old ships to a whole new audience.''
San Francisco Chronicle
27-04-2025
- General
- San Francisco Chronicle
S.F.'s Opening Day on the Bay gets season underway with 70 boats, one soaked yacht clubber
Under a cool gray sky Sunday morning, a bagpiper played 'Garryowen' as a minister in her robe led a procession of men in blue blazers bearing the St. Francis Yacht Club crest down the plank and onto the dock. The Rev. Canon Sally Bingham led a prayer 'that these boats go out safely and come back safely,' and 15 club captains boarded their sailboats and powerboats to form up and join a much larcher fleet for San Francisco's traditional Opening Day on the Bay. 'All over the country, this bit of ceremony signifies the point of commencing the yachting year, club Commodore Adam Gambel said as he prepared to sail his Sabre 386 out to the rendezvous to meet other clubs from all around the bay that meet for an annual parade on the waterfront. Yachts were decorated for that purpose, and the sailors were dressed in their finery, which for Gambel included three gold stars over his club crest and white buckskin shoes to match his white pants. Impeccable as he was, Gambel's uniform was outdone by Mike Peterson, who was dressed like a naval Emperor Norton, with a long blue coat trimmed in gold fringe and crossed by a red sash. His duties, he explained, were 'telling people when to raise their glasses and when to salute the judges.' The judges, on the Committee Boat, tied up in front of Aquatic Park at the Hyde Street Pier. This provided a shock in a tradition that is not accustomed to shocks. The historic fleet, including the Balclutha, C.A. Thayer and Eppleton Hall, were not where they belong and won't be back for many season openers. The Hyde Street Pier, home of San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park, has to be rebuilt and so do the ships, most notably the ferryboat Eureka, an 1890s sidewheel paddleboat that needs a major overhaul. Those two renovation projects are budgeted at $102 million total, funded through the 2020 Great American Outdoors Act. The pier, which is run by the National Park Service, has been closed since November with no reopening date. The Eureka and Hercules will join their antique sisters at Mare Island in May or June. 'It feels empty as all get out, without the Balclutha and all those classic vessels,' said Melissa Vincent, one of seven owners of Guardian Fireboat No. 2, which served the San Francisco Fire Department from 1990 to 2022. Vincent and her partners bought the Guardian out of retirement, and she is now a parade boat operated by their nonprofit. The Guardian was one of two fireboats to lead the parade with water cannons spouting. 'It was a lovely display of commitment to the maritime community in San Francisco Bay,' Vincent said. In all, 70 vessels were on the water for the 47th annual Opening Day, coming from all points in the bay and its tributaries, plus a contingent from Lahaina. They sailed by a judges boat which was to include an Oakland fire chief who had to excuse himself to attend to a blaze that threatened a church. The remaining judges announced winners in five categories, who will be announced at a ceremony May 12 by the Pacific Inter-Club Yacht Association, which sponsors Opening Day. Among the prominent boats was ChinChin, a 45-foot power catamaran built by Larry Ellison as a viewing boat for the America's Cup when it was hosted on the bay in 2016. As St. Francis' fleet prepared to line up, the Folly II, a 64-foot motor yacht, backed into the dock and a club member grabbed the stern line to tie it up on a cleat. But he did not get it secured, and everyone in their yachting blue and whites watched the man get pulled by the Folly II off the dock and into the cold waters of the bay after holding onto the line for too long. Three or four men fished him out and up onto the dock, and he was whisked off in soaking clothes, to be warmed in the club sauna. There was already one soaked yacht clubber before the fleet even left the dock. When they finally pulled out, it included the club's junior sailors dressed as flower children in a Summer of Love theme. The theme for Opening Day was 'Generations on the Bay,' and District 2 supervisor Stephen Sherrill came by to offer his support from the dock. 'This is what San Francisco needs to be about,' he said. 'Families that start here, grow here and stay here.'
