Months post quakes, no matter how much silt clearing was done by manual digging or mechanical diggers, there was always dry silt on roads. Although roads & pavements I trekked were cleared of grey quakemire, they were grey with liquefaction dust, like dry, gritty cement poured on roads. Never mind the ongoing Xmas Quake Swarm which began on 23.12.11.
Contrast between grey, dusty, liquefactioned roads & quake broken, posh housing was Third World / First World. I developed a skin infection, after 16 months of trekking grey liquefactioned streets. Last time I had such an infection was when I worked in Third World, QwaQwa township, 1987 apartheid SA, long drop toilets, dusty, muddy, shitty streets, similar to post quake Christchurch.
Mon 16.01.12. I wanted to see Burwood quake damage, west side of Anzac Dr, between Travis Rd by Travis Wetland in the N, New Brighton Rd by Avon River in the S. The developed swampland was almost surrounded by waterways, Avon River & swamp. Wetlands were on both sides of lumpy, patch-repaired Anzac Dr to Anzac Dr Bridge: an eastern creek, a western swamp. Both waterways had new houses close by. Why did Council allow housing development on swampland, liquefaction prone land?
I circular trekked along cleaned, liquefactioned roads, couple of detours snapping swampland ghost housing & liquefaction damages.
CERA Landcheck website, land status:
Brooker Ave: 72 properties, 69 red zone, 3 green zone.
Norcross St: 4 properties, all red zone.
Corserland St: 38 properties, all red zone.
Longview Pl: 20 properties, all red zone.
Kingsbridge Dr: 67 properties, 36 red zone, 31 green zone.
Kingsbridge West: 39 properties (no housing), all green zone.
Schumacher Pl: 8 properties, 3 red zone, 5 green zone.
Rebecca Ave: 33 properties, all red zone.
Red zone land / housing was deemed by NZ National govt / CERA to be too expensive to fix, people had to leave. Green zone land / housing was deemed fixable, liveable. But no one moderated slow Tonkin & Taylor engineers who investigated & reported on quake damaged land.
Kingsbridge West was zoned by Council for development before the 2010-2011 quakes, infrastructure in place. And CERA / Tonkin & Taylor deemed Kingsbridge West green zone! Post quakes, Kingsbridge West was full of grey, quakemire boils & volcanoes. Behind Kingsbridge West wooden fence, across Travis Rd was Travis Wetland. The fact that most land / housing on roads I trekked was red zoned, made green zoning of adjacent Kingsbridge West bonkers!
All houses I trekked past were relatively new, many were abandoned, some tilted, sunk into grey quakemire. Excluding Kingsbridge West green zone anomaly, given that the rest of the roads I trekked were 84% red zoned, that meant Council building consents were pre-quake cockups, little or no reference to liquefaction prone land.
Christchurch red zones: there would be 1 000s of red zoners annoyed at being ripped off by Council consents & developers' greed. It was Council's & developers' business to know about liquefaction prone land & liquefaction hazards long before building consents & building developments.
Brooker Ave: Parked near New Brighton Rd, snapped a couple of liquefaction sunk, ghost houses, gardens overgrown. Orange, plastic, road cones guarded road damage.
16.01.12. Liquefactioned, red zone housing, Brooker Ave, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Norcross St, opp Brooker Reserve: Couple of ghost houses. Orange, plastic, road cones guarded road damage.
16.01.12. Liquefactioned Brooker Reserve, viewed from Brooker Ave / Norcross St, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Memorial plaque, BROOKER RESERVE:
STEPHEN AND REBECCA
BROOKER
SETTLED ON 40 ACRES OF LAND BETWEEN
BARKERS ROAD AND BOWER AVENUE IN 1860
BEING ONE OF THE FIRST FOUR FAMILIES
HERE. STEPHEN NAMED THE AREA
"NEW BRIGHTON" AFTER BRIGHTON ENGLAND
Corserland St: Trekked round the bend, then parallel to Anzac Dr by swampland. Grey liquefaction dusty, some houses, inhabited, most were ghosts, gardens overgrown. Saw a woman sweeping grey quakemire off her driveway using a brush & pan.
16.01.12. Liquefactioned Corserland St, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Longview Pl: Big, grey sinkhole, orange, plastic, road cones on cnr. Grey liquefaction dusty, some houses were inhabited, most were ghosts, gardens overgrown.
16.01.12. Green, plastic, sewage tank, liquefactioned Corserland St / Longview Pl, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
16.01.12. Red zone, liquefactioned, Longview Pl, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
16.01.12. Liquefaction sinkhole, Longview Pl / Corserland St, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Trekked Corserland St again, watched a woman & her barking Doberman vanish into swampland behind houses. Canada geese, other waterfowl, floated in the swamp, unfazed by noisy Anzac Dr nearby.
16.01.12. Swampland between Anzac Dr left & Corserland St, post 23.12.11 quake swarm. Mt Evans & Port Hills backdrop
16.01.12. Red zone, quake damaged Corserland St, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Kingsbridge Dr: Grey liquefaction dusty, some houses inhabited, some ghosts, gardens overgrown. Watched an orange digger on top of a rubble pile scoop the remains of a 2 storey, ghost house into a truck. CERA would demolish many red zone, ghost houses over the next year.
16.01.12. Green, plastic, sewage tank, Corserland St / Kingsbridge Dr, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
16.01.12. Red zone, liquefactioned house, Kingsbridge Dr, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
16.01.12. Orange digger, demolition of quake damaged, double storey house, red zone, Kingsbridge Dr, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
16.01.12. Red zone, liquefactioned house, Kingsbridge Dr, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Schumacher Pl: Grey liquefaction dusty, some houses inhabited, some ghosts, gardens overgrown. Looked across busy Travis Rd to Travis Wetland: How many ghost houses were there? Travis Rd: lumpy, bumpy, patch-repaired, messy.
16.01.12. Red zone, green, plastic, sewage tank, Kingsbridge Dr / Schumacher Pl, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Earlier that morn, driving to Anzac Dr, along Travis Rd by Basset St, I'd passed a digital road sign: EARTHQUAKE DAMAGE. Round the traffic circle, on Anzac Dr I'd passed a road sign: EARTHQUAKE DAMAGE.
16.01.12. EARTHQUAKE DAMAGE road sign, Anzac Dr, post 23.12.11 quake swarm. Port Hills backdrop
Schumacher Pl: Along a swampland path, parallel to Schumacher Pl & Kingsbridge Dr, I detoured round the back of ghost houses: A new house, tilted towards the swamp, split in two, split up an end wall, straight across the roof. Don't build in a quake zone swampland!
16.01.12. Red zone, liquefaction damaged house by swamp, Schumacher Pl, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Passed the orange digger demolition site again. An old woman peered through a fence at the demolition. She wore a day pack & toted a camera.
16.01.12. Orange digger, red zone, demolition of quake damaged, double storey house, Kingsbridge Dr, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Kingsbridge Dr: Trekked west to Kingsbridge West. Further from Anzac Dr swamp I trekked, the less obvious damaged housing, the road was cleaner.
16.01.12. Red zone, liquefactioned house, Kingsbridge Dr, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
16.01.12. Waterway footbridge between Kingsbridge Dr & Travis Rd, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
16.01.12. Liquefactioned, Donnell Sports Park, Kingsbridge Dr, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Trekked past Donnell Sports Park & a waterway going to Travis Rd. Kingsbridge Dr bend: Snapped a sunken, ghost house, weeds, dry, grey quakemire in garden.
16.01.12. Quake sunk, liquefactioned house, Kingsbridge Dr / Kingsbridge West, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Kingsbridge West: As mentioned above, road & infrastructure, already built, but grey quakemire polluted mown grass, like Council & developers wanted to flog housing there, on liquefactioned swampland after 10 000 quakes. Later on, councillor Livingstone would tout Kingsbridge West as cheap land to sell for affordable housing. Livingstone made the same mistake like Councillors before him. Build on swampland!
2020. New houses would sell at Kingsbridge West. Council had consented the liquefactioned land & closely packed housing (minimum NZ$500 000 RV per house) architects had designed the houses, contractors had built the houses, real estate agents had sold the new houses, buyers had bought their new houses on liquefactioned land across the road from Travis Wetland.
16.01.12. Liquefactioned Kingsbridge West, post 23.12.11 quake swarm. This green zone, swamp anomaly was amidst red zone swampland. Travis Rd & Travis Wetland was behind fencing
Rebecca Ave: Grey liquefaction dusty, some houses inhabited, some ghosts, overgrown gardens. Passed a house demolition site occupied by a dusty, grey liquefaction boil. Demolition trucks rumbled by, spewing grey dust. A pile of dead carpets mouldered in a dusty driveway. During quake times, I saw many roadside piles of muddy carpets, sure signs that housing was flooded by quakemire. I saw flooding in Jake's Waltham Rd flat, Feb 22 Killer Quake, all carpets flooded by a burst well. Anticipating new tenants, the owner just Hoovered the shit-wet carpets!
16.01.12. Red zone, liquefactioned house demolition site, Rebecca Ave, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
16.01.12. Quake damaged house, Rebecca Ave, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
16.01.12. Quake damaged carpets, Rebecca Ave, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Brooker Ave, back to my car: Grey liquefaction dusty, some houses inhabited, some ghosts, overgrown gardens. CANTERBURY MOVERS truck parked in a yard, red zoners relocating. Saw many mover trucks over the last year. Streets I trekked that shiny morn, grey dust smothered. New houses, damaged by quakes. Roadsides: grey quakemire, green, plastic, sewage tanks, crappy.
16.01.12. Red zone, liquefactioned housing, Rebecca Ave / Brooker Ave, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
16.01.12. Quake damaged housing, Brooker Ave, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
*Trekked Brooker Ave, Norcross St, Corserland St, Longview Pl, Kingsbridge Dr, Kingsbridge West, Schumacher Pl, Rebecca Ave. 184 snaps.
Tues 17.01.12. Quake recovery minister Brownlee TV announced that orange zone properties on Southshore between the Pacific & Avon-Heathcote Estuary & white zone properties in the Port Hills may get a zoning decision by the end of February. For months post quakes, those homeowners were left in limbo by CERA & slow Tonkin & Taylor land reporting since quake zoning began. Red zoners & green zoners could get on with their broken lives, battling CERA / NZ National govt, EQC, insurers. But orange zoners & white zoners, had to suck it up & wait.
Who or what was causing PM Key's "psychological damage" post 23.12.11 Xmas Quake Swarm? CERA / NZ National govt? EQC? Insurers? Fletcher? Quakes? NZ National govt land-grab: NZ National govt wanted to sell public assets. Yet NZ National govt was forcing red zoners off their land with Crown offers at pre-quake 2007 RV. NZ National govt didn't say what it would do with the taken red zone land, a huge asset. Whether red zoners accepted either NZ National govt buyout option, or insurance payout option, red zoners were forced by NZ National govt, red zone decree to leave Tonkin & Taylor deemed, unfixable land!
TC3 green / blue zoners had no such NZ National govt buyout offer, having to suck on dry, liquefaction paps of EQC & / or insurer payouts. 28 000 TC3 green / blue zoners' long term prospects were grimmer than 7 000+ red zoners', who could take NZ National govt buyout cash & run. TC3 green / blue zoners were doomed to quakemire digging, quake after quake. Should they stay on ravaged land, they were doomed to spend a fortune on reinforced house foundations, no guarantees foundations would withstand future quakes.
NZ National govt speculated on red zoners' land, either using red zoners' insurance money to pay out red zoners for house & land (red zoners ceded their land / house insurance policies to the Crown) or using taxpayers' money to buy red zoners' land & leaving red zoners to sort out house payouts with insurers. Either option, red zoners lost their land to NZ National govt. Thus red zoners were forced off their land by NZ National govt.
Coda:
Thurs 21 Mar 2013. Fourteen months later, NZ National govt would still be mum about use of its newly acquired, red zone riverlands. CERA minister Brownlee, non-committal. Mainland Press would report a Brownlee spokesman: "The Crown will recover some costs from insurers following the purchase of the red zone residential properties, but decisions on the future use for this land and whether the Crown will gain from these are yet to be made."
Nov 2013. Ditto Mar 2013. Many red zone, ghost houses had been demolished by CERA.
Jan 2016. NZ National govt still stayed mum about what it would do with red zone land it had taken.
July 2018. Regenerate Christchurch (CERA morph) in the hands of NZ Labour govt would burble about what to do with residential red zone land: Should there be city to sea parkland beside Avon River? Definitely no new rowing lake, CERA minister Brownlee's favourite. Public protests followed, favouring a rowing lake.
Sept 2020. NZ Labour govt would begin progressively transferring residential red zone land to Christchurch City Council.
April 2022. During Easter holidays, I trekked Brooker Ave / New Brighton Rd residential red zone, viewing public amenity ideas for the residential red zone. Walkers, joggers, cyclists about, but none of the amenities were used when I trekked. Amenities were mostly off Brooker Ave en route to Kingsbridge West post quake housing development on liquefactioned land at the end of Brooker Ave. Red zoned housing was long gone, but trees, shrubs, grass remained behind red zone fencing:
1. Sportsfield beside New Brighton Rd, combined soccer / rugby goal posts.
2. Concrete paved "road" area for kids to learn road signs on their bicycles or toy cars.
3. The Barkery: Dog cafe for dog walkers to train dogs, walk dogs & relax on wooden picnic benches by a caravan cafe shop.
4. New native plantings, Brooker Reserve. A board read:
Brooker Avenue
In 2018 we secured a lease of four acres either side of
Brooker Reserve, framed by Brooker Ave and Corsers
Stream. We are developing this site as an exemplar of what
a Forest and Wetland Park in the Red Zone might look like.
Ideally positioned near Travis Wetland and incorporating
the 360 Trail, we hope this site will one day be part of a
dedicated ecological sanctuary, providing an educational
and community-focussed resource for the people and bird
and plant life of Christchurch.
We plant a mixture of dry and wet forest species as well as
maintain the site and develop educational and community
resources and initiatives...
About us
The Residential Red Zone contains
thousands of fabulous trees and shrub specimens, both
exotic and native species and cultivars, that were
once part of former residents' gardens, and now
could become the backbone of an Avon-Otakaro
Forest and Wetland Park.
As a group we have managed to secure ten sites
across the Red Zone that have ecological
significance. We believe in preserving and developing
natural diversity for future
generations and developing the Red Zone in an
environmentally sympathetic manner. As a
volunteer organisation, we maintain these sites
through regular working bees, with some
weedy specimens removed to allow young
native seedlings to develop.
As well as this site, we also look after sites on
Avonside Drive, Waitaki Street and Keller Street
and work closely with the Christchurch City Council
rangers to maintain and develop
Horseshoe Lake Reserve with a working bee
on the final Saterday of every month...
5. Disc Golf field, Disc Golf apparatus on the field.
6. Erected volley ball net.
7. Wild flower patch, a heap of weeds, info board fallen on the ground.
8. Another paved "road" for kids to learn road signs, behind the Disc Golf field.
9. Drone Club field.
10. On a creek bridge, conservation info board:
Waitakiri
EcoSanctuary
Improving lives with nature
CANTERBURY HAS some of the most modified
LANDSCAPES in NZ, but unlike other regions, it has no EcoSanctuary.
Tiny preserved pockets of habitats like Putoringamatu - Riccarton Bush represent what
was lost. Where colonial settlers built, the city was lowland forest... woodlands.
Towards the coast, dunes and salt marsh have been displaced. Christchurch lost 95% of its
wetland habitats along with the wildlife that relied on them.
The river regeneration zone provides a unique
opportunity to restore some of those lost
ecosystems and Waitakiri EcoSanctuary will also
allow for the introduction and care of some of
our most precious and endangered species.
The project boundaries includes Travis Wetland with its 20 years of regeneration and the
... Red Zone where there is high ground for re-foresting. A land-bridge crossing Travis Rd
will link the two halves and a predator-proof fence will encircle the entire site...
Aug 2023. NZ Labour govt would complete transfer of residential red zone land to Christchurch Council.
See Red zoners 'bullied' in Govt buyout (The Press / Stuff Co).
See CERA / govt offer to red zone residents for insured properties.
See Council is tearing itself apart - Sue Wells (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Liquefaction During Historical Earthquakes in NZ. (Department of Civil Engineering, University of Canterbury).
See Munted there was no dialogue no transparency. Rev Mike Coleman (Stuff Co).
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