District's sportsfields getting spick and span for winter

Published on 05 June 2024

Footballers enjoy one of the first games at Anderson Park, Parua Bay on a gleaming, early winter day.

Parua Bay and Bream Bay locals turned out in May to celebrate the opening of two new sets of sportsfields this winter.

Anderson Park field opens

Anderson Park at Parua Bay has been a work in progress for almost a quarter of a century. Family members and friends of local identity Adam Anderson beamed with pride when it was officially opened on 20 May. 

After Parua Bay School consulted with the local community, hapū and the football club, the name Anderson Park was chosen to commemorate Adam Anderson who was active in supporting the local firefighters, scouts, and football club. 

The first concept plan for the field, carpark, paths and plantings on the site near Parua Bay School was developed by Littoralis Landscape Architecture in 2000.

Between 2017 and 2018, the project was included in Council’s Long-Term Plan and the school’s Board of Trustees started working with Council's parks department to get the project moving. 

The resource consent was obtained and the final design, by Vecta Ltd. Whangārei, was completed in 2020.

In 2021, the School and Council agreed to a 25-year lease of the Ministry of Education Property. Under the agreement, the school has primary use of the sportsfield during school hours, and the community and community sports clubs (particularly the Manaia Tigers Football Club) will have use of the field outside of school hours.

Construction by contractors Green By Nature, with the earthworks by subcontractor McKenzie Contracting and civil works sub-contractor Robinson Asphalts, began in 2022. Two wet summers in 2022 and 2023 made progress slow-going, but the sportsfield was ready for use by the start of the football season in May 2024.

The park features one new sportsfield with drainage and fencing, new carparks, new footpaths, a maintenance track, and landscaping with trees.

Young footballers turned out in uniform at United Football Club - Bream Bay.

Ruakākā's Bream Bay fields open

A swarm of maroon-clad Bream Bay United Football Club youngsters celebrated the opening of the new football fields at Ruakākā on 16 May.

Design work on the project in 2018 required 90,000 cubic metres of sand dune to be removed to provide room for two new fields. 

In 2020, Earthworx Rural and Civil Ltd. Removed about 60,000 cubes of sand, and in 2020, Hansen Drainage and Earthworks Ltd removed another 25,000 cubes of sand.

In 2023 to 2024, TIC Contracting Ltd. completed the fields’ construction in time for the football season. The facility includes two new full-size football fields, fencing, drainage improvements to the park, additional lighting, irrigation to the Number 1 field, and planting.

Work progresses on the Onerahi sportsfields.

Onerahi work progressing

At Onerahi, work is progressing on a $750,000 upgrade with new drainage installed and irrigation to go in over the next few weeks, ready for grass seed to be sown in mid-June 2024. 

Contractors Green By Nature and Rankin McManus Electrical have been working on the project, which has included lighting, drainage and irrigation upgrades.

Ōakura Sportspark plans near completion

Design, consultation, and technical reports are near completion for the Ōakura Sportspark, which will include sportsfields, a playground, hardcourts, community facilities and a wetland.