After the floods there was no option. Stormwater had to be redirected. The council reserve land at the North end of Kororareka Bay is where some of the water goes. But what has happened to the land there?
The wahi tapu area there was specifically excluded from a grant made to Polack by Old Land Claims Commissioners in 1844. By 1863 it was crown land. Russell’s first school was built there in 1879…and then the 19th century came to an end.
By the mid sixties there were more and bigger buildings and a boat ramp was built. The shape of cars and boats changed. Another century ended. When the bulldozers moved in, in the winter of 2011, an unusual sculpture appeared on the foreshore where before there had only been beach. Whatever will be next?
