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RNZ News
09-07-2025
- Climate
- RNZ News
Flood-hit Tasman farm 'more like a riverbed than a farm'
Grazing paddocks are strewn with slash and debris at Dion McGaveston's Tapawera farm, when the Motueka River burst its banks during the recent floods. Photo: SUPPLIED/Dion McGaveston Work to bolster flood resilience along the Motueka River came too late for one flood-hit Tasman farmer who lost dozens of hectares of farmland to the stopbank-bursting river. Communities at the top of the South Island, particularly around Tasman and Nelson, were now in recovery mode, following the one-in-100-year flood that sent the areas in a state of emergency on 27 June. Officials were bracing for more rainfall in the area forecast this week. Dion McGaveston farmed sheep and beef across about 200 hectares in Tapawera near the Motueka River. He said the farm was still a "bit of a mess" due to the Motueka River it bordered running through the property, bringing silt, debris and rocks in its trail of destruction. "We've got about 50 hectares that have been completely flattened by the floods, not a fence left," he said. "20-odd hectares covered in river rocks, gravel, debris and silt. Yeah, it looks more like a riverbed than a farm at the moment." McGaveston said a defect was discovered at the stopbank between the farm and the river a couple of years ago, and it was working with Tasman District Council to address it. "[2023] I think it was when we went first went to council and said it needed to be repaired because it was going to come through there, like it has," he said. "It was just like an open gate for the whole flood to go straight through there." McGaveston said he believed a plan developed with council was going to progress, following their emergency response work, which he supported. "Actually, they started dropping a bit of rock there the day before the flood, but that was meant to happen a bit earlier in the year and it didn't. "And then the rest of the job was meant to start in July." He said he believed the damage on his farm would not have been as bad if the stopbank had held. "For us it's just that we got all the stuff, gravel and river off all over our paddocks that needs to come off as well. So the job is ten times worse." The Tasman District Council were faced with the task of maintaining 285 kilometres of major rivers. Efforts to improve flood resilience garnered funding from central government last year. In August, the government aimed to boost flood resilience in Nelson and Tasman, to the latter allocating $6.6m for refurbishing the Lower Motueka River stopbank and $900,000 towards the Peach Island stopbank repair. David Arseneau, the district council's team leader for rivers and coastal structures, said it was working collaboratively with McGaveston and neighbour Hinetai Hops on the issue. Arseneau said several rain events in the past 12-18 months had led to the failure of a "legacy, unconsented private stopbank" that was keeping the river contained. "It is hard to overstate just how severe this flood event has been for the District, approximately a 100-year flow event, and the scale of this flood needs to be put into perspective with the work that will be done at Dion's farm," he said. "The project will involve establishing a new riverbank line with new willow plantings, anchored trees reclaimed from the current riverbank, and grading to provide more room and capacity for the river to flow through this area." Arseanau said about five hectares of McGaveston's farm, that was tipped to become a man-made river corridor, became occupied by the river in this flood event. He said planned work to plant willow trees to capture flood debris, when mature, will resume as planned, though work was disrupted by the floods. But he added that massive floods will always affect low-lying floodplains where many in the district farmed. But he hoped to reduce the intensity of the damage by "making sure the river has enough room", and by establishing riverside riparian buffers. "However, the river channel will only ever be able to contain limited flows before spilling into its floodplain, perhaps a mean annual or two-year flow level, and Council does not provide any flood protection service (i.e. through stopbanks) in this area of the Motueka River to contain more significant flows than that." McGaveston said there were no stock losses and they were able to find grazing land, but the challenge for feed will come later into winter. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
1News
29-06-2025
- Climate
- 1News
'Millions of dollars' of flood damage in Nelson-Tasman region revealed
Flooded communities in the Nelson-Tasman region remain cut off tonight as the full extent of the clean-up becomes clearer across the top of the South Island. Farmland in Tapawera, 75 kilometres southwest of Nelson, was still submerged following the torrential rain across the region, with a boil water notice in place, and a warning to treat all water as contaminated. The rain has eased for now, and roads are slowly beginning to reopen. Flattened fences with heavy debris show the power of the water which rushed onto one Tapawera farm. Its owner, Dion McGaveston, said he has never seen anything like it. ADVERTISEMENT "It was raging through here taking a few fences down. It just got worse and worse." Helpless to stop it, he captured his precious pasture being consumed by a muddy torrent of water. Resident Raine Turner said she got a "bang" on her door from neighbours who were "shaking and terrified" and told her "oh my god we're flooded". The streets were left coated in mud, and from above, officials saw just how extensive the damage was. They flew over the area where a man lost his life while clearing some of the flooding damage. 1News understands he was Peter Lines, a stalwart of the Wakefield community and the New Zealand hop industry. Minister for Emergency Management Mark Mitchell said the man was a "prominent and respected person in their community", and that his death will be "reverberating through the community". Far more water had come down than anyone expected. One farmer told 1News he had warned the council a year ago the stop bank would fail, but remedial work was yet to start. ADVERTISEMENT 'Millions of dollars worth of damage' Nelson Mayor Nick Smith said there had been millions of dollars worth of damage to roads, bridges, fences, farm buildings, hop gardens, orchards, and the Great Taste cycleway. "The worst areas are Wai-iti, Tapawera, Motueka Valley, Kohatu, Motupiko, Pretty Bridge Valley and Tadmor." Forty-seven local roads were closed with progress in reopening being made, while the damage to State Highway 6 south of the Kohatu bridge was "extensive" where the Motueka River overran it and would require a "major fix", he said. "The State of Emergency in Nelson and Tasman will remain in place till at least Thursday when we are expecting another front with about 200mm of rain. The greatest risk is further slipping on sodden hills." Smith also acknowledged Lines' death, saying "Our love goes out to Peter's wife, family and the Wakefield community at this very difficult time." Civil Defence controller Alec Louverdis said they were planning for the "worst case scenario". ADVERTISEMENT "It's not good news with everything so wet and inundated."
