£1m South Canterbury Rivers Control Project

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28792, 13 January 1959, Page 6

£1m South Canterbury Rivers Control Project

The noise created by six monster excavators, and the shrill cries of “Timber!” at 100 ft Lombardy poplars crashed on the berm land on the Orari river, was the orchestration which greeted a representative of “The Press" who was recently conducted on a tour of part of the £lm Orari-Walhi-Temuka catchment control scheme, designed to keep these rivers from damaging valuable and closely-settled farm land in times of flood. The figure of £1,000,000 is the estimated cost of the comprehensive scheme that has been approved by the Minister of Works (Mr Wattl and the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Council, and which will give protection .gainst 250 year floods on the lower Orari, 100 year floods on other parts of that river below the gorge. 50 year floods on the other main rivers, and 10 year floods on minor streams. The work at the junction of Coopers creek and the Orari river b costing more than £lOOO daily. The entire scheme, including work in the back catchment, will be spread over 20 years and is the biggest scheme undertaken by the South Canterbury Catchment Board. All the major works in the plains sections of the rivers will be done in about nine years, according to the board’s deputychief engineer (Mr A. H. Mawson). The hy-passing of the Orari lagoon was overcome by the cutting of a new mouth for the Orari ri In 1952-54. subsidies earned for cane ox major worn, ana Government is sharing mete than • per cent of the ?ost The BMMEttonwae eoneentrated fo the Ctamdeboye asany-lands workin£ at_Coepare ereefc eon be atafl are Harking » bsurs dally The major schema is centred on *e stretch twtyfari RoDeston and Yrltsra’S Wriitgsa. Hit north bank df •»—Oaart rivar being completed * to Badham’s bridge. The dlstenri from the sea to the Orari •arg. is about S miles. A total

bf nine miles has been completed, the greater distance being on the north side of the river. Giant Excavators The excavators were working on the south side between Rolleston and Badham’s bridges, transporting stopbank material from the riverbed, which has already been excavated to a depth of from two to three feet in places. Avenues of trees are ready for felling in this locality. The stopbanks are designed to contain 200 year floods. One. machine, valued at £33,000, is. transporting about 32 cubic yards of shingle every five minutes, while smaller machines are excavating half this quantity. The four tractor-drawn excavators are lifting a total of 60 cubic yards on the round trip, and doing eight trips an hour, while the two big machines are... striking about 50 cubic yards each time, and completing 11 trips hourly. The entire scheme provides for river control, soil conservation and drainage works over a total catchment area of 350,000 acres, of which about 120.000 acres will receive direct benefit. In 1849, the Orari flooded into the Waihi and then to the Temuka and Opihi river mouth. By 1855 it had broken away from the Waihi and had carved its present independent course for 12 miles to the sea. Early in white settlement, the 1868 flood in the Orari spilled heavily into the Waihi and Temuka, deeply flooded Temuka borough with loss of life, and convinced the settlers that some system of river control in the area would have to be introduced. In 1872, the first River Rating District'was set up on the Orari. The Geraldine County . River Board was set up to reduce flood damages after 1920. By the time of the 1945 major flood most of the stopbanks and other flood control measures were derelict. Damages approximated £590.000. which, converted to 1954 values, would be in the vicinity of £lm. It baa been estimated that the Oran-waim-Toniujui catchments devastation of the 1945„ flood period, the Geraldine County River Board went out of existence, and in IMB its functions were taken over by the South Canterbury Catchment Board.