‘River Lady’ guards the Avon

Press, 15 July 1985, Page 8

‘River Lady’ guards the Avon

By

JACQUELINE STEINCAMP

The River Lady . . that’s how an Avon Loop resident, Janet Moss, likes to think of herself.

A botanist, horticulturalist, “boatie,” environmental and social activist, Janet Moss has a deep concern for the Avon River. She thinks it’s the city’s number one asset — and that we don’t make enough use of it. “We could be getting far more enjoyment from the Avon than we do,” she says. Mrs Moss takes a very active part in planning submissions made by the Avon Loop Planning Association and the North East Inner City Neighbourhood Group. Mrs Moss is delighted that the Christchurch City Council recently decided against the Avonside Drive/ Woodham Road Expressway. But as the moving force behind protests against that expressway, she is still wary of what the traffic planners may have in mind.

“Even though we appear to have got back to pre--1968, when the first motorway proposals were brought

in, if we are to protect the river, we need to watch the traffic planners like hawks,” she maintains.

The 360-degree view from Mrs Moss’s upstairs sitting room in her Oxford Terrace home looks out over her beloved Avon, and the trees and greensward of the Barbadoes Street cemetery. From there, Mrs Moss sees everything that goes on — up and down the river. Lovers, boozy parties, barbecues, whitebaiters, dogs being exercised, tourists strolling.

Sometimes stolen cars are pushed into the water in front of her house.

The wide, grassy river verges in the area are increasingly used for picnics, she observes. Whole families drive down to the river, and spend lazy afternoons, reading, chatting, playing with the children, feeding the ducks. What a petrol saving! From her windows, Janet watches children paddling in the shingly shallows opposite. When summers are hot, she sees children swim-

ming. They even try to ride their bikes in the water. Canoeists from Avonside Girls’ High School, half-a-mile downstream, occasionally streak through the water. Janet Moss is often heard suggesting that a boatshed with boats for hire should be established in the Avon Loop area.

“Maybe something like a specialist centre for young canoeists, so we can have young Olympic hopefuls training in the middle of the town.”

For much of her 22 years in Christchurch, Janet Moss has agitated for safer public access to the Avon.

She’d like to see a path for pedestrians and cyclists along much of its length.

“It could start from the new Girls’ High School, though there’d be problems of access on the hospital side when the Botanic Gardens are closed,” she said. An underpass could be built, she suggests, further down, under the Fitzgerald Avenue bridge, and Beverley Park extended right

down to the river, sealing off the end of Avonside Drive.

Mrs Moss owned property in Avonside Drive for 14 years. She thinks the section between Fitzgerald Avenue and Stanmore Road has a unique historical significance because houses on that section represent every decade since 1876.

“Hopefully, lifting the designations will favour the establishment of a quiet and

tranquil area,” she says. Her studies and ideas for the area were incorporated in a report made by a landscape architect, Rob Pryor, to the Christchurch Civic Trust. Its recommendations were adopted by the trust in April. Janet Moss’s love of the River Avon is put to the test with every “River Clean-Up” prior to annual Avon Loop River Carnivals. She comes up trumps — in

swimsuit and plastic sandals, staying in the water far longer than people half her age. Janet has spent a lifetime “mucking about in boats.” In her childhood at Evesham, on Shakespeare’s Avon, there were frequent family excursions in rowing boats, punts, and a genuine Canadian canoe. Janet Hepburn arrived in New Zealand in 1939, a trained St. Christopher’s

nanny. “Coming to New Zealand made me realise I had taken the wrong profession,” she admits. She nevertheless found a position with a family in the Waiau area. Janet Moss began to study horticulture during the Second World War and completed her diploma. She was a demonstrator in the Plant Science Department at Lincoln College from 1966 to 1971.