2. Where is our public access on Opau Road to Opau Bay?

3. Where is protection for our Quartz Hill peneplain?

1. Where is our Regional Reserve?

In 1975 the Wellington City Council, and the predecessors of the Wellington Regional Council and Department of Conservation proposed that the values of Makara Farm and Quartz Hill be protected for the public as the Makara Regional Park.. At that time the land was publicly owned by the New Zealand Post Office, which allowed relatively free public access to the coast.

This is the central reason for the existence of this Trust. The public have for a long time been able to appreciate this public land, and that was recognised by government agencies, who have raised community expectations as to the desirability of this publicly owned land being publicly accessible as a Regional Reserve of some sort.

Wellington City Council reportedly considered buying Quartz Hill in 1988 and was reportedly assured by MP's Dunne and Prebble that any disposal would be publicised to ensure that Wellington Regional Council and Wellington City Council could potentially acquire the land. These assurances appear to have been overlooked, as the land was sold to the State Owned Enterprise Telecom and then on-sold to State Owned Enterprise Electricorp, and then on-sold to State Owned Enterprise Merdian Energy, without any obvious publicity.

• Why have these government agencies not been able to advance the provision of a Regional Park at Makara Farm?
• Were Wellington Regional Council and Wellington City Council given the opportunity by the government to acquire this land before disposal?

2. Where is our public access on Opau Road to Opau Bay?

At the time of the cabinet Crown Land Allocations in 1988, Makara Farm and Quartz Hill were sold by the government to Telecom when it was a State Owned Enterprise. The sale to Telecom required that public access be provided on Opau Road to Opau Bay.

In 1995, the Minister for State Owned Enterprises stated that public access was being finalised and must be completed before any sale of the land by Telecom, and that it would be recorded against the title.

The Makara Farm was subsequently on-sold to the State Owned Enterprise Electricorp in 1996, and then on-sold to the State Owned Enterprise Meridian Energy. The Minister for State Owned Enterprises has since investigated what happened to the public access that has not yet been provided, and found that the Department of Survey and Land Information and Telecom and the Department of Conservation had failed to record the public access against the title.

Treasury have insisted since 1996 that public access is required to implement Cabinet's decision

• Why is the public being treated as trespassers on this cabinet determined public access?
• Why do Meridian Energy not implement the executive government decision on public access?
• Why have the Department of Survey and Land Information and the Department of Conservation been unable to ensure that the public access was secured?
• Why do the executive government not require that its public access decision be implemented by its State Owned Enterprise Meridian Energy forthwith?

3. Where is protection for our Quartz Hill peneplain?

In 1975 the predecessor to the Wellington Regional Council identified our Quartz Hill peneplain as the largest relatively uneroded peneplain remnant in the Wellington Region. It recommended that it be should be conserved to protect its essential characteristics.

In 1996, the Geological Society of New Zealand reviewed all geological sites in New Zealand and confirmed the Regional Importance of our Quartz Hill peneplain.

In 2003 the Professor of Geomorphology at Victoria University reassessed the special significance of our Quartz Hill peneplain and found it to be of National Significance and one of the most important landforms in the Wellington Region, warranting reservation and public access.

• Why does the government not protect this important feature on its publicly owned land?
• Why is this and other sites of regional/national Geological Importance not protected in our Regional and District Plans?
• What programs do Wellington Regional Council, Wellington City Council and the Department of Conservation not have to legally protect such significant natural features?

In 2005 the Senior Lecturer with the School of Earth Sciences at Victoria University confirmed the special significance of our Quartz Hill peneplain and found it to be of International Significance and one of the most important landforms in the Wellington Region.

• The significance of Quartz Hill must therefore be recognised and protected as required under Sections 6(b) and 7(g) of the Resource Management Act (1991).