Addington Brook is a spring-fed urban waterway running through Hagley Park. The first stage of the naturalisation project has been completed with the second stage running through 2025.
Read more about the project on Newsline.
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Addington Brook is a spring-fed urban waterway that passes through heavy industrial land before flowing through Hagley Park to join the Ōtākaro-Avon River near the Botanic Gardens.
Stage two works will being in early 2025 to naturalise and restore this waterway.
Download a high-resolution version of this map [JPG, 714 KB].
Addington Brook was identified as a priority catchment for restoration by ECan due to consistently poor water quality and catchment health.
Most of the timber that once lined the steep banks of the brook has rotted away and there are clear signs of slumping and undercutting following storm events.
These images were taken only a few months apart - before and after a rain event.
Several trees have also grown within the waterway edges which create blockages during storm events.
There are also safety concerns about having an open waterway, with such steep banks in an area heavily used by pedestrians and cyclists.
The naturalisation of Addington Brook will:
Addington Brook before and after stage one.
To create a healthy ecosystem for community through native biodiversity and habitat that will help to restore the mauri (life-force) of the Addington Brook and the Ōtakaro-Avon River.
To create, through an understanding and respect for natural resources once abundant in the area, a restored landscape that shows the deep relationship between people and all elements of the natural systems.
To create a landscape that enhances our sense of identity and place and strengthens the community’s health and wellbeing.
To create a place that strengthens the relationships and natural interactions between the community and the landscape through restored natural ecosystem values.
To allow for a range of tree species of various ages and heights around the waterway, the Council intends on retaining and transplanting as many good candidate existing trees as possible, as well as planting over five hundred new trees.
Some trees will need to be removed to allow us to balance the cultural, drainage, ecological, heritage, landscape and recreation values of the waterway and Hagley Park.
Over the years, Addington Brook has shifted naturally and for improvements to Hagley Park.
The project has been divided into two stages:
Download a high-resolution version of this plan [JPG, 933 KB].