Restoring Te Auaunga Oakley Creek stream provides wider benefits for the community.

Te Auaunga Oakley Creek is an Auckland Council Healthy Waters project in Mt Roskill, Auckland that prevents flooding from nearly 200 homes in three Local Board areas, enables housing intensification in a brownfield site, and has established a river park along Te Auaunga (Oakley Creek).

The project restored 2km of Te Auaunga, daylighted seven piped tributaries, restored eight hectares of open space, and treated the water quality of the contributing catchment. Te Auaunga is an exemplar of water sensitive design in the sense that it preserves and restores the natural environment to support urban intensification, uniquely within a brownfield development.

Client

Auckland Council Healthy Waters

Location

Auckland

Project team

Mark Lewis
Sarah Collins
Sarah Flynn
Hanna O'Donoghue
Sofia Fourman
Ian Boothroyd

Worked with

Aecom
Auckland Council
Filipe Tohi
Fulton Hogan
Harko Brown
Kaitiaki for: Te Kawerau a Maki; Ngāi Tai Ki Tāmaki; Ngāti Tamaoho; Te Akitai, Waiohua – Tāmaki; Ngati Te Ata; and Ngāti Whātua Ōrakei
McCoy + Heine Architects
WEC

Project date

2019

Awards

Award of Excellence | Parks | NZILA Resene Pride of Place Landscape Architecture Awards
Award of Excellence | Te Karanga o te Tui | NZILA Resene Pride of Place Landscape Architecture Awards
Engineering Impact Award | Engineering Vision (ENVI) Awards - Engineering New Zealand
Silver Pin | Public Good Award | Best of Awards - Designer's Institute of New Zealand (DINZ)
Excellence in Environment and Sustainability | IPWEA Asset Management Excellence Awards
Category Winner | Sustainability | NZILA Resene Pride of Place Landscape Architecture Awards

Te Auaunga Oakley Creek project includes shared pathways and pedestrian bridges, community orchards, an outdoor classroom, and community fale and atea space. Natural play areas were introduced, with ngā taonga tākaro to interpret the environmental and cultural narratives of the site.

Collaborative design and comunity engagement was undertaken with mana whenua, the local community, local boards, CCOs, HNZC, schools, artists, and Auckland Council. This was facilitated through design workshops, a community liaison group, governance meetings, public open days, and school workshops to ensure all views were considered within the project objectives and final design, and throughout the construction phases.

Of note are the inclusion of social procurement initiatives, involving training and employment of local young people in the project, and establishment of a native nursery social enterprise at Wesley Intermediate School. The key social procurement objectives of Te Auaunga were primarily to ensure social and economic outcomes could be delivered over and above the infrastructural improvement.

Boffa Miskell was Design Lead in a team with AECOM NZ for planning, consent, and design. We were also the project Landscape Architect, Ecologists, and Streamwork Designer. Our role continued through 18 months of construction supervision

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