Clean-up at Wilton Park slip

By Frank Neill

More than 40 volunteers removed 930kg of rubbish from the surface of the Wilton Park slip on 4 March.

The ri Wilton Bush Trust and Kia Mouriora te Kaiwharawhara Sanctuary-to-Sea teams from Zealandia co-hosted the clean-up, and Cameron Harrison’s Butcher in Ngaio donated the sausages for the barbecue lunch.

The slip occurred on 21 August 2021 and flowed from Wilton Park to the Kaiwharawhara Stream.

Following the slip, the park has not been available for summer cricket, and options for winter sports this year are being assessed by Wellington city Council.

The slip has also temporarily closed the Kaiwharawhara Track that runs along the stream between Ian Galloway Park and ri-Wilton Bush.

The slip was primarily made up of local soil and rock which was used to fill in a gully in the 1950s to create the sports field.

A large amount of sediment has been discharged into the stream and Wellington Harbour as a result.

Wellington City Council (WCC) is developing plans to make the site safe in the short term and to temporarily open up access for walkers along the Kaiwharawhara track this summer.

WCC has an initial engineering report which details risks associated with the slip and options to remediate the site and make it safe.

Options include battering the slope to reduce risk of further slips, removing the mud/vegetation blocking the stream, and reinstating the track, picnic area and native forest which were all affected by the slip.

“Longer term options for Wilton Park are being explored and opportunities for public input into this process will happen in the future,” the council says.

“Master planning which is under way for the nearby Ian Galloway Park may also affect the options for this area.”

Wilton Park will remain closed to the public for the remediation earthworks which are happening in two phases from March 2023.

The first phase will re-contour the top of the slip and the second phase will remove branches blocking the stream and reduce the amount of sediment entering the stream from the slip when it rains.