The continued clean-up of a contaminated petroleum storage site on Auckland’s waterfront by the multinational petroleum company Shell has apparently cost the city the chance to host a major sailing event this summer.
It was a deflating turn for Auckland’s events sector, as it tries to get a stable line-up of economically stimulating events on the books, to hear international sailing competition SailGP had pulled out of next March’s Auckland race.
The event, which was hoped to form part of the inaugural Moana Auckland ocean festival in March, set sail with just a few months’ notice.
But though major events like this have a wide array of pulleys and levers that need to line up before they are given the go-ahead, it appears the end of SailGP Auckland came about because of one small patch of land at the end of a wharf in downtown Auckland.
For want of a nail, the event was lost – in this case, the nail being a vacant lot on Wynyard Point earmarked by SailGP organisers as ideal for a spectator zone.
SailGP hoped to put at least 5,000 grandstand seats on the dockside property, which offers wide views of the Waitematā Harbour.
The event was cancelled after this space proved to be unusable, despite Auckland tourism and events promoters Tātaki Auckland Unlimited providing the organisers with an option to disperse the 5,000 spectators across three nearby locations.
Tātaki Auckland Unlimited chief executive Nick Hill said his organisation worked with SailGP to explore all possible options to stage the event here and had solutions for SailGP’s on-water course and on-land seating plans.
“However, the unavailability of Wynyard Point land as a spectator facility proved to be a barrier to holding the event in Auckland. This land was part of SailGP’s original vision for the sailing competition.”
Event organiser SailGP said it had wanted to explore every possible opportunity to host an event in Auckland and give all parties involved as much time as possible to find a solution – but as planning evolved, it has become clear a lack of available viewing areas would pose a much more significant impact on the fan experience, viewing and total capacity than originally envisaged.
Shell leases the site from the council group and is completing bioremediation to clean it up from previous petrol storage, making it unsafe for public use.
The reclaimed land just north of Silo Park was once home to 53 storage tanks, exposing the land beneath to fuel during handling processes.
Soil and groundwater sampling and testing by Tonkin and Taylor in 2020 and ERM in 2021 found contaminants in the top metre of the soil from petroleum and hydrocarbon storage and from reclaimed soil having been sourced from a gasworks site.
Council development agency Eke Panuku have called the development of this site one of the most important regeneration projects in the city over the next two decades.
The plan is to regenerate Wynyard Point into a major urban park surrounded by mixed use development.
But before that can be done, contaminated soil must be excavated and sifted, before being placed in large piles with air-pumping pipes inserted to speed up the natural process of contaminant breakdown.
The work began in October 2022, and is expected to take nine months to complete.
That timeframe suggests that any big event organisers could reasonably expect to be able to use the land nearly 18 months later – but that was not to be with work ongoing.
SailGP were offered three other sites to use: the nearby road corridor of Hamer Street, Halsey Wharf and Hobson Wharf, which are understood together to be able to house 5,000 spectators.
However, it appears SailGP’s “original vision” for the viewing experience of the event was difficult to budge on. Newsroom understands event planners were keen on spectators all being centrally located.
The race was intended to form part of the lineup for Moana Auckland, the first of a yearly ocean-focused festival hoped to bring in millions of dollars for the region and boost the maritime industry.
Events such as the Auckland Boat Show, Z Manu World Champs, New Zealand Millennium Cup superyacht regatta, Sculpture on the Gulf, Harbour Classic and the new Wooden Boat Festival will take place in February and March next year, with a fan hub at the Viaduct.
