Meola Creek
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Meola Creek is a waterway in
Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...
, New Zealand. It is situated in Integrated Catchment Area #1 within Auckland City's drainage network. The catchment consists largely of a natural valley that runs down from the north-east slopes of Mt Albert (Owairaka), north of Mt Albert Road. The upper section of Meola Creek flows along the boundary of the
Western Springs College Western Springs College is a state co-educational secondary school located in Western Springs, an inner suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. Western Springs College and Ngā Puna o Waiōrea teach collaboratively on one campus. The school educates ...
and through the Kerr-Taylor Reserve. The area around the creek is subject to a combination of residential, commercial and recreational activities, which result in the stream being entirely piped upstream of the Chamberlain Park Golf Course, and strongly contaminated with urban pollutants such as zinc and lead. Meola Creek drains into an estuarine area of the mid-
Waitematā Harbour The Waitematā Harbour is the main access by sea to Auckland, New Zealand. The harbour forms the northern and eastern coasts of the Auckland isthmus and is crossed by the Auckland Harbour Bridge. It is matched on the southern side of the city ...
, on a low-lying part of the
Auckland isthmus The Auckland isthmus, also known as the Tāmaki isthmus, is a narrow stretch of land on the North Island of New Zealand in the Auckland Region, and the location of the central suburbs of the city of Auckland and the central business district. ...
. This receiving environment has one of the longest histories of urbanisation in the Auckland region. The area around the estuary is actually a natural flood plain, much of which has been converted to parks and playing fields. A good portion of the mangrove forest remains intact. Te Tokaroa (
Meola Reef Meola Reef, or in Māori ('toka'='rock', 'roa'='long'), is a lava flow forming a reef peninsula across part of Auckland's Waitemata Harbour, New Zealand. The reef extends for over 2 kilometres across the harbour, to within 500 metres of Kau ...
) next to
Point Chevalier Point Chevalier (; commonly known as Point Chev and originally named Point Bunbury after Thomas Bunbury) is a residential suburb and peninsula in the city of Auckland in the north of New Zealand. It is located five kilometres to the west of t ...
forms the northern part of a long lava flow that originated from Mount Saint John volcano and flowed down a narrow creek valley. The reef extends for over across the Waitematā Harbour


History

Tāmaki Māori Tāmaki Māori are Māori ''iwi'' and ''hapū'' (tribes and sub-tribes) who have a strong connection to Tāmaki Makaurau (the Auckland Region), and whose rohe was traditionally within the region. Among Ngā Mana Whenua o Tāmaki Makaurau (the M ...
people named the creek Waitītiko, meaning "water of the periwinkles". The creek was traditionally used for
eel Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 20 families, 164 genera, and about 1000 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...
fishing by
Tāmaki Māori Tāmaki Māori are Māori ''iwi'' and ''hapū'' (tribes and sub-tribes) who have a strong connection to Tāmaki Makaurau (the Auckland Region), and whose rohe was traditionally within the region. Among Ngā Mana Whenua o Tāmaki Makaurau (the M ...
. European settlers subsequently renamed it Meola Creek, possibly after a glacier in India where
Allan Kerr Taylor Allan Kerr Taylor (30 December 1832 – 14 April 1890) was a notable New Zealand landowner and businessman. He was born in Negapatam, India in 1832. His second wife was Sophia Taylor (née Davis). His father was General William Taylor. Personal ...
was born and lived until aged eight. The Kerr Taylor family lived near the source of Meola Creek in a large Indian-influenced house called Alberton, one of the most loved historic houses in New Zealand. In pre-human times much of the area was
wetlands A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...
; in fact, the nearby suburb of
Sandringham Sandringham can refer to: Places Australia * Sandringham, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney * Sandringham, Queensland, a rural locality * Sandringham, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne **Sandringham railway line **Sandringham railway station * ...
used to be called Cabbage Tree Swamp up until the mid 19th century. Following European settlement, most of the area around the creek remained as gorse-covered swamp until it was finally drained and converted into school playing fields in 1953. In June 2006 an Asiatic short-clawed
otter Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic, or marine. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae family, which includes weasels, badgers, mink, and wolverines, among ...
called Jin made national news as it escaped from
Auckland Zoo Auckland Zoo () is a zoo, zoological garden in Auckland, New Zealand, situated next to Western Springs Park not far from Auckland's Auckland CBD, central business district. It is run by Auckland Council with the Zoological Society of Auckland as ...
by swimming down Meola Creek on an outgoing tide and into the Waitematā Harbour. The fugitive otter was later captured on
Motutapu Motutapu Island is a island in the Hauraki Gulf to the northeast of the city of Auckland, New Zealand. The island is part of the Hauraki Gulf Maritime Park. The island can be accessed via regular ferry services departing from Auckland City. ...
Island in Auckland's Hauraki Gulf.


Threats

Recent chemical and biological analyses carried out on water quality and sediment indicate Meola Creek is in a poor condition. Channelization and pollution have taken a hefty toll on its biota and fundamental hydrology. Pollutants such as
heavy metals upright=1.2, Crystals of lead.html" ;"title="osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead">osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead Heavy metals is a controversial and ambiguous term for metallic elements with relatively h ...
and petrochemicals enter the creek via several
stormwater Stormwater, also written storm water, is water that originates from precipitation (storm), including heavy rain and meltwater from hail and snow. Stormwater can soak into the soil ( infiltrate) and become groundwater, be stored on depressed lan ...
drains along the creek. Because it is situated in a heavily urbanised catchment there are high percentages of
impervious surfaces Impervious surfaces are mainly artificial structures—such as pavements (roads, sidewalks, driveways and parking lots, as well as industrial areas such as airports, ports and logistics and distribution centres, all of which use considerable pav ...
such as roads, carparks and buildings (estimated at 94% of the total catchment area) - all ideal media for the flow of contaminants into urban waterways The creek also receives significant amounts of
sediments Sediment is a solid material that is transported to a new location where it is deposited. It occurs naturally and, through the processes of weathering and erosion, is broken down and subsequently sediment transport, transported by the action of ...
via the drainage of excess groundwater from the school playing fields as well as slips caused by erosion. During high rainfall events the combined sewage-stormwater drain often overflows, discharging raw human excrement directly into the creek. The problems, however, are not confined to the creek - within the Meola Reef settling zone (in the Waitematā Harbour), both
zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...
and
lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...
have exceeded alert levels, which means the
benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning "the depths". ...
community (e.g., shellfish and other sediment-dwelling invertebrates) has been seriously impacted. Heavy metals such as zinc can persist in the aquatic environment for considerable periods of time, particularly in sediment. As a consequence, metals can accumulate in the tissue of benthic organisms and their predators at higher
trophic level The trophic level of an organism is the position it occupies in a food web. Within a food web, a food chain is a succession of organisms that eat other organisms and may, in turn, be eaten themselves. The trophic level of an organism is the ...
s. Zinc has been shown to be toxic to aquatic plants and animals. In fish, waterborne zinc can disturb ionic regulation, disrupt gill tissues and cause hypoxia. How much of this can attributed to historical industrial pollution is not known. What is known, however, is that there has been a significant increase of zinc entering this receiving environment since the 1950s – the time when galvanized paint started to be used on rooftops within this increasingly urbanised catchment. In particular, industrial roofs have been found to have zinc levels significantly greater than other urban sources.Hartwell, S., Silyn-Roberts, G. (2002) At source control of copper and zinc through management of roof and gutter materials. URS New Zealand Limited.


References


External links

* A section of the creek that runs through Kerr-Taylor Reserve is at coordinates {{coord, -36.887962, 174.72785, type:landmark
St Lukes Environmental Protection Society
(STEPS) - Society created to see the quality of the water in Meola Creek improved.
Photographs of Meola Creek
held in Auckland Libraries' heritage collections. Rivers of Auckland Waitematā Harbour catchment Albert-Eden Local Board Area